COBOL INSPECT TALLYING FOR LEADING SPACES

 

INSPECT TALLYING FOR LEADING SPACES
 
The following COBOL program depicts the use of 
INSPECT TALLYING FOR LEADING SPACES
 
 
       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
       PROGRAM-ID. PGM030.
       AUTHOR. MAINFRAMEWIZARD.
       DATA DIVISION.
       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
       01 TEST-STRING   PIC X(40) VALUE SPACES.
       01 WS-COUNTER    PIC 9(9)  VALUE ZEROES.
       01 SEARCH-STRING PIC X(2)  VALUE SPACES.
       PROCEDURE DIVISION.
       10000-MAIN-PARA.
             MOVE '     THIS IS TEST STRING TO TEST LEADING SPACES'
              TO  TEST-STRING
             INSPECT TEST-STRING TALLYING WS-COUNTER FOR
             LEADING SPACES
             DISPLAY 'COUNT OF LEADING SPACES IS = '
               WS-COUNTER
             STOP RUN.
 
 
 
The output of the program is 
 
COUNT OF LEADING SPACES IS = 000000005                                                                                   

Comments

Anonymous

Wed, 11/14/2012 - 15:43

removing leading spaces :

if testfield not = spaces.

   move 1 to ws-counter.

   inspect testfield tallying ws-counter for leading spaces.

   move testfield(ws-counter:) to receiving-field.

end.

 

.* i use a cobol dialect, so i use more punctuation, but above is easy to do in normal cobol as well