HP 3000 Manuals

HP COBOL II/XL Reference Manual

Function Types 

Functions are treated like temporary, elementary data items.  Use them
wherever you would use an elementary data item, with the exceptions noted
below.  Functions cannot be receiving operands.  Functions return
alphanumeric, numeric, or integer values, as follows:

   *   Alphanumeric functions are of the class and category alphanumeric,
       and have an implicit usage of DISPLAY.

   *   Numeric functions are of the class and category numeric and always
       have an operational sign.  Numeric functions can only be used in
       arithmetic expressions (such as in COMPUTE statements, relation
       conditions, or reference modification) and cannot be used where an
       integer operand is required, even if the function call might yield
       an integer value.

   *   Integer functions are of the class and category numeric and always
       have an operational sign.  The definition of an integer function
       provides that all digits to the right of the decimal point are
       zero in the returned value for any possible evaluation of the
       function.  Integer functions can only be used in arithmetic
       expressions.  For example, the statement

                 MOVE FUNCTION SIN(5) TO A

       is illegal, whereas the statement

                 COMPUTE A = FUNCTION SIN(5)

       is legal.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation