cobol MOVE statement
Remarks
MOVE is the workhorse of COBOL. Data is moved from literal or identifier to one or more identifiers. COBOL has a distinction between elementary and group MOVE. Elementary data is type converted from source to destination. Group data is moved as a byte array, without regard to field types with a structure. Numeric fields are moved from right to left, high order digit truncation with zero fill (normally). Alphanumeric character data is moved left to right, right end character truncation with space fill. There are quite a few rules on how MOVE goes about its business, with both BINARY and PICTURE DISPLAY data forms, and group hierarchies all accounted for.
