Summary of Intrinsic Functions

This summarizes the intrinsic functions that are available in P3/COBOL. It is essentially a superset of the 1985 standard functions incorporating additional functions available on other common COBOL dialects and some unique to this COBOL. Many of the additional functions are compiled by P3/COBOL for syntax checking purposes in the editor, but are not currently implemented.

The implementation markers in this table follow the compiler's intrinsic-function registry. A function marked with footnote 1 is recognized for syntax checking but is not implemented by the runtime. Functions without that marker are implemented.

For background on national argument and result types, conversion between DISPLAY and national data, and national collating sequences, see National Data in P3/COBOL.

The Arguments column defines argument type and the Type column defines the type of the function, as follows:

Argument	Type
Alph	means alphabetic
Anum	means alphanumeric Bool means boolean
Ind	means index
Int	means integer
Key	means a keyword
Nat	means national
Num	means numeric
Ord	means an ordering table
Ptr	means pointer
Type	means a type declaration
Arg or Args	means the type of the argument or arguments, respectively

Num in the arguments column includes Int. Both Int and Num are listed in the arguments column when the type of the argument determines the type of the function.

Anum in the arguments column includes strongly-typed group items. When the type of the argument determines the type of the function, the function is an alphanumeric function when any of the arguments is strongly-typed, even when all the arguments of the function are of the same type.

In the Arguments column, the following conventions apply:

A digit immediately following the argument type indicates the argument's position in the list of arguments.
If more than one argument type may appear in a given position, they are separated by the word 'or'.
If an argument in a given position in the list may consist of more than one component, the components are separated by the word 'and'.
Commas are used only to separate an argument from the next argument in the argument list.

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For example, the sequence 'Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1, Alph2 or Anum2 or Nat2 or Key2 or Key2 and Loc2, Key3' in the 'Arguments' column is to be interpreted as follows:

The first argument is alphabetic, alphanumeric, or national.
The second argument is alphabetic, alphanumeric, national, a keyword alone, or a keyword with a locale specification.
The third argument is a keyword.

The 'Value returned' column gives a synopsis of the value returned; additional details are specified in the definition of the function.

Name	Argument(s)	Type	Value returned
ABBREVIATE	Anum1 or Nat1	Arg	The abbreviated value of argument-1
ABS	Int1 or Num1	Arg	The absolute value of argument-1
ACOS	Num1	Num	Arccosine of argument-1
ADDR	Alph1 ... or Anum1 ... or Ind1 ... or Int1 ... or Nat1 ... or Num1 ...	Ptr	Address of the argument-1 (as a P3/COBOL pointer)
ANNUITY	Num1, Int2	Num	Ratio of annuity paid for argument-2 periods at interest of argument-1 to initial investment of one
ATAN	Num1	Num	Arctangent of argument-1
ASIN	Num1	Num	Arcsine of argument-1
BOOLEAN-OF-INTEGER¹	Int1, Int2	Bool	A boolean item representing the binary value equivalent of the numeric value in argument-1
BYTE-LENGTH	Any	Int	Length of argument-1 in number of bytes
CHAR	Int1	Anum	Character in position argument-1 of the alphanumeric program collating sequence
CHAR-NATIONAL	Int1	Nat	Character in position argument-1 of the national program collating sequence
COMBINED-DATETIME	Int1, Num2	Num	Numeric representation of combined integer date and standard numeric time
COS	Num1	Num	Cosine of argument-1
CURRENT-DATE		Anum	Current date and time and local time differential
DATE-OF-INTEGER	Int1	Int	Standard date equivalent (YYYYMMDD) of integer date in argument-1
DATE-TO-YYYYMMDD	Int1, Int2, Int3	Int	Argument-1 converted from YYMMDD to YYYYMMDD based on the values of argument-2 and argument-3
DATEVAL¹²	Int1 or Anum1	Arg	The date value of argument-1
DAY-OF-INTEGER	Int1	Int	Julian date equivalent (YYYYDDD) of integer date in argument-1
DAY-TO-YYYYDDD	Int1, Int2, Int3	Int	Argument-1 converted from YYDDD to YYYYDDD based on the values of argument-2 and argument-3
DISPLAY-OF	Nat1, Alph2 or Anum2	Anum	Usage display representation of argument argument-1. Argument-2, if specified, is an alphanumeric character to be used when no alphanumeric character corresponds to a national character in argument-1
E		Num	The value of e, the natural base
ESCAPE-PATTERN	Anum1 or Nat1	Nat	Escapes argument-1 string for use as regular expression matching the argument-1 string
EXCEPTION-FILE		Anum	Information about the file exception that raised an exception
EXCEPTION-FILE-N		Nat	Information about the file exception that raised an exception
EXCEPTION-LOCATION¹		Anum	Implementor-defined location of exception
EXCEPTION-LOCATION-N¹		Nat	Implementor-defined location of exception
EXCEPTION-STATEMENT¹		Anum	Name of statement causing an exception
EXCEPTION-STATUS¹		Anum	Exception-name identifying last exception
EXP	Num1	Num	e raised to the power argument-1
EXP10	Num1	Num	10 raised to the power argument-1
FACTORIAL	Int1	Int	Factorial of argument-1
FORMATTED-CURRENT-DATE	Anum1 or Nat1	Arg	Formatted date equivalent of current date and time in the format specified in argument-1
FORMATTED-DATE	Anum1 or Nat1, Int2	Arg	Formatted date equivalent of integer date contained in argument-2 in the format specified in argument-1
FORMATTED-DATETIME	Anum1 or Nat1, Int2, Num3, Int4	Arg	Formatted date (from integer date in argument-2) and time (from standard numeric time in argument-3) in the format specified by argument-1. Offset from UTC, if the format Int4 requires it, is supplied by argument-4
FORMATTED-TIME	Anum1 or Nat1, Num2, Int3	Arg	Formatted time equivalent of standard numeric time contained in argument-2 in the format specified in argument-1. Offset from UTC, if the format requires it, is supplied by argument-3
FRACTION-PART	Num1	Num	Fraction part of argument-1
HEX-OF	Anum1 or Nat1	Nat	String represention of argument-1 as hexadecimal digits
HIGHEST-ALGEBRAIC¹	Anum1 or Int1 or Nat1 or Num1	Int Num	Greatest algebraic value that may be represented in argument-1
INTEGER	Num1	Int	The greatest integer not greater than argument-1
INTEGER-OF-BOOLEAN¹	Bool1	Int	The numeric value of a BINARY-DOUBLE item whose bit configuration is the same as argument-1, right-justified
INTEGER-OF-DATE	Int1	Int	Integer date equivalent of standard date (YYYYMMDD) in argument-1
INTEGER-OF-DAY	Int1	Int	Integer date equivalent of Julian date (YYYYDDD) in argument-1
INTEGER-OF-FORMATTED-DATE	Anum1 or Nat1, Anum2 or Nat2	Int	Integer date equivalent of date contained in argument-2 whose format is described by argument-1
INTEGER-PART	Num1	Int	Integer part of argument-1
LENGTH	Alph1 or Anum1 or Bool1 or Ind1 or Nat1 or Num1 or Type1	Int	Length of argument-1 in number of character positions or number of boolean positions
LOCALE-COMPARE¹	Alph1, Anum1 or Nat1, Alph2, Anum2 or Nat2, Loc3	Anum	A character indicating the result of comparing argument-1 to argument-2 using an ordering defined by a locale specified by argument-3
LOCALE-DATE¹	Anum1 or Nat1, Loc2	Anum	A character string containing a date specified by argument-1 in a format specified by argument-2 and a locale
LOCALE-TIME¹	Anum1 or Nat1, Loc2	Anum	A character string containing a time specified by argument-1 in a format specified by a locale
LOCALE-TIME-FROM-SECONDS¹	Num1, Loc2	Anum	A character-string containing a time specified by argument-1, in a format specified by a locale specified by argument-2
LOG	Num1	Num	Natural logarithm of argument-1
LOG10	Num1	Num	Logarithm to base 10 of argument-1
LOWER-CASE	Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1	Arg	A character string with any uppercase letters in argument-1 set to lowercase
LOWEST-ALGEBRAIC¹	Anum1 or Int1 or Nat1 or Num1	Int Num	Lowest algebraic value that may be represented in argument-1
MAX	Alph1 ... or Anum1 ... or Ind1 ... or Int1 .... or Nat1 ... or Num1 ...	Args	Value of maximum argument
MEAN	Num1 ...	Num	Arithmetic mean of arguments
MEDIAN	Num1 ...	Num	MediaMean of minimum and maximum arguments
MIN	Alph1 ... or Anum1 ... or Ind1 ... or Int1 ... or Nat1 ... or Num1 ...	Args	Value of minimum argument
MOD	Int1, Int2	Int	argument-1 modulo argument-2
NATIONAL-OF	Alph1 or Anum1, Nat2	Nat	Usage national representation of argument-1. Argument-2, if specified, is a national character to be used when no national character corresponds to an alphanumeric character in argument-1
NUMVAL	Anum1 or Nat1	Num	Numeric value of simple numeric string contained in argument-1
NUMVAL-C	Anum1 or Nat1, Anum2 or Nat2 or Key2 and Loc2, Key3	Num	Numeric value of numeric string with optional currency sign and commas contained in argument-1. If specified, argument-2 is either a specified currency sign or a locale specification, and argument-3 specifies case insensitivity
NUMVAL-F	Anum1 or Nat1	Num	Numeric value of numeric string representing a floating-point number contained in argument-1
ORD	Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1	Int	Ordinal position of argument-1 in collating sequence
ORD-MAX	Alph1 ... or Anum1 ... or Ind1 .... or Nat1 ... or Num1 ...	Int	Ordinal position of maximum argument
ORD-MIN	Alph1 ... or Anum1 ... or Ind1 ... or Nat1 ... or Num1 ...	Int	Ordinal position of minimum argument
PI		Num	The value of π
PRESENT-VALUE	Num1, Num2 ...	Num	Present value of a series of future period-end amounts, argument-2, at a discount rate of argument-1
RANDOM	Int1	Num	Random number; optional argument-1 specifies seed value
RANGE	Int1 ... or Num1 ...	Arg	Value of maximum argument minus value of minimum argument
REM	Num1, Num2	Num	Remainder of division of argument-1 by argument-2
REVERSE	Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1	Arg	Reverse order of the characters of argument-1
SECONDS-FROM-FORMATTED-TIME	Anum1 or Nat1,	Num	Standard numeric time equivalent of the data contained in argument-2 as described by the format specified in argument-1
SECONDS-PAST- MIDNIGHT		Num	Seconds past midnight as provided by the system
SIGN	Num1	Int	The sign of argument-1
SIN	Num1	Num	Sine of argument-1
SQRT	Num1	Num	Square root of argument-1
STANDARD-COMPARE¹	Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1, Alph2 or Anum2 or Nat2, Ord3, Int4	Anum	A character indicating the result of comparing argument-1 to argument-2 using the ordering specified by argument-3 at the comparison level specified by argument-4
STANDARD-DEVIATION	Num1 ...	Num	Standard deviation of arguments
SUM	Int1 ... or	Args	Sum of arguments
TAN	Num1	Num	Tangent of argument-1
TEST-DATE-YYYYMMDD¹	Int1	Int	0 if argument-1 is a valid standard date; otherwise identifies the sub-field in error
TEST-DAY-YYYYDDD¹	Int1	Int	0 if argument-1 is a valid Julian date; otherwise identifies the sub-field in error
TEST-FORMATTED-DATETIME¹	Anum1 or Nat1, Anum2 or Nat2	Int	0 if argument-2 conforms in form to the format specified error in argument-1 and represents a valid date, time or combined representation according to that description; otherwise, identifies the character in
TEST-NUMVAL	Anum1 or Nat1	Int	0 if argument-1 conforms to the requirements of the NUMVAL function; otherwise identifies the character in error
TEST-NUMVAL-C	Anum1 or Nat1, Alph2 or Anum2 or Nat2 or Key2 or Key2 and Loc2, Key3	Int	0 if argument-1 conforms to the requirements of the NUMVAL-C function; otherwise, identifies the character position in error. Argument-2 specifies either a currencysign or a locale specification, and argument-3 specifies case insensitivity
TEST-NUMVAL-F¹	Anum1 or Nat1	Int	0 if argument-1 conforms to the requirements of the NUMVAL-F function; otherwise identifies the character in
TIME-MILLI		Int	The time in milliseconds since the beginning of epoch
TIME-NANO		Int	The time in nanoseconds since the beginning of epoch
TRIM	Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1, Key2	Args	The value of argument-1 with leading spaces, trailing spaces, or both, deleted.
UNDATE¹²	Int1 or Anum1	Arg	The non-date value of a date-type argument-1
UPPER-CASE	Alph1 or Anum1 or Nat1	Arg	A character string with any lowercase letters in argument-1 set to uppercase
VARIANCE	Num1 ...	Num	Variance of argument-1
WHEN-COMPILED		Anum	Date and time compilation unit was compiled
YEAR-TO-YYYY	Int1, Int2, Int3	Int	Argument-1 converted from YY to YYYY based on the values of argument-2 and argument-3 a A function that has only alphabetic arguments is type alphanumeric.
YEARWINDOW¹²		Int	Starting year number of the current century window

¹ This function is recognized for syntax checking, but is not implemented by the runtime at this time.

² The function definition follows IBM COBOL for z/OS with the NODATEPROC option in effect.

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