COBOL Decimal Math/Business Logic

Question

What am I missing?

QualityPoints PIC 9v99 VALUE 4.00.
XValue        PIC 9v99 VALUE 3.00.
Total         PIC 999v99.
outTotal      PIC zz9V99.

COMPUTE Total = QualityPoints * XValue.
MOVE Total to outTotal.

When I perform this compute my outTotal is 11.2 what happened?

Please see the reproducable results using online compiler which has all my code and files available.

Which compiler and OS? Either the compile you are using is a bag'o'nuts or there is something causing this in code that you have not shown. If the program is large, try to reduce it to a small program which exhibits the problem. Sometimes, doing this, you'll find out why, as well. — Bill Woodger, Sep 11 '16 at 06:26
using gnuopencobol on ubuntu not excatly sure which version I think its 14. I will try to get a better snippet as the code is around 200 lines long I didnt want to post up everything. I just knew that the values were 4.00 and 3.00 they come from an input and a check I displayed to make sure the values were correct before entering the compute and then bam math problem. — CoryC, Sep 11 '16 at 07:55
Your actual data does not match the definition of your data. You have defined `Earned` as `9V99` but the data is held as `3.00` or `1.00`. You need to deal with that. One way is to define Earned as 9.99 (a numeric-edited field which would presume an actual decimal-point in the data) and MOVE that to an intermediate data-item defined as 9V99 and then use that intermediate item in the calculation. From memory @SimonSobisch already recommended that in an earlier question of yours. — Bill Woodger, Sep 11 '16 at 09:21

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 08 '18 at 05:03

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your code other than the fact that it's not a complete program that you posted (no divisions or sections, no levels on your data, possibly other things that I couldn't be bothered testing)

Well, that and the fact that the link to the online compiler site has long since gone, proof once again that SO question should be completely self-contained with all information needed. When posting questions and answers, I always ask myself if they'll still be useful if the rest of the internet totally disappears.

However, using that same site, the following program^(a) does work as expected:

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. PAX-DIABLO.

DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 QualityPoints PIC 9v99 VALUE 4.00.
01 XValue        PIC 9v99 VALUE 3.00.
01 Total         PIC 999v99.
01 outTotal      PIC zz9.99.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
COMPUTE Total = QualityPoints * XValue.
MOVE Total to outTotal.
DISPLAY outTotal.
STOP RUN.

It produces the expected answer, as per the below transcript:

$cobc -x -free *.cobc -o main
$main
 12.00

^(a) See, this answer is self-contained, see how easy that was :-)

COBOL Decimal Math/Business Logic

1 Answers1