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Mainframe COBOL Programming: Beginner to Expert
New
1 students

Mainframe COBOL Programming: Beginner to Expert

Learn COBOL by writing programs: COMP-3, tables, VSAM files, SORT, control breaks, CALL and copybooks, JCL and CICS
Created byAlgoholic io
Last updated 10/2026
English

What you'll learn

  • Program structure and syntax
  • Modular programs
  • Embedded SQL
  • Maintaining COBOL programs
  • Verifying a COBOL to Java migration

Course content

5 sections • 51 lectures • 5h 21m total length

  • Introduction to COBOL12:34
  • The four divisions of a COBOL program6:38
  • Fixed-format source columns5:47
  • PIC clauses and picture strings7:43
  • COMPUTE and ROUNDED5:26
  • Edited pictures and signed fields8:10
  • Intermediate results in a COMPUTE6:12
  • IF and EVALUATE6:37
  • Condition names with 88-level items4:30
  • The PERFORM statement6:26
  • OCCURS and table declarations7:00
  • SEARCH and SEARCH ALL6:43
  • Two-dimensional tables5:10
  • DISPLAY, COMP and COMP-36:38
  • REDEFINES6:03
  • Reference modification6:20
  • CALL and the LINKAGE SECTION5:35
  • Contained programs and copybooks5:49
  • Reading a program you did not write4:23
  • Checking what a change touches5:18
  • JCL and CICS5:26

Requirements

  • No prior COBOL experience required - this course starts from scratch.
  • Basic understanding of core programming concepts (like variables and logic) is helpful.

Description

Learn COBOL from scratch and build the skills you need to work on enterprise systems, banking applications and legacy codebases. The course starts with program structure and carries on through files, VSAM, embedded SQL, maintaining code you didn’t write, and checking a COBOL to Java migration.

Course overview

COBOL still runs and will keep running critical systems in banking, finance, insurance and government. This course splits those systems’ core ideas into short, focused lectures. You start with how a COBOL program is laid out and how data is declared. Next come exact decimal arithmetic, decisions and loops, tables, storage formats and subprograms. Then you work with sequential and indexed files, SQL inside COBOL programs, and the day-to-day work of maintaining a production program. The last section covers what to check when COBOL is converted to Java.

What you will learn

  • Program structure and syntax: the four divisions, fixed-format source columns, and PIC clauses.

  • Arithmetic a bank would accept: COMPUTE and ROUNDED, edited pictures, signed fields and intermediate results.

  • Logic and control flow: IF, EVALUATE, 88-level condition names and the PERFORM statement.

  • Tables and storage: OCCURS, SEARCH and SEARCH ALL, two-dimensional tables, DISPLAY, COMP and COMP-3, REDEFINES and reference modification.

  • Modular programs: CALL, the LINKAGE SECTION, contained programs and copybooks.

  • File handling and VSAM: SELECT, ASSIGN and FD, FILE STATUS, KSDS, ESDS and RRDS clusters, indexed reads, alternate keys, SORT and MERGE, control break reports, and matching a transaction file against a master file.

  • Embedded SQL: EXEC SQL blocks, host variables, the SQLCA and SQLCODE, null indicators, cursors, commit scope and restart logic after a failed batch.

  • Maintaining COBOL programs: reading structure before logic, following PERFORM THRU and GO TO, tracing a field from its copybook, scoping a change, running a regression and reading run-time errors.

  • Verifying a COBOL to Java migration: generated Java structure, packed decimal against BigDecimal, EBCDIC and ASCII collating order, and transaction boundaries.

Who this course is for:

  • Developers who want to move into enterprise programming or add COBOL to their skills.
  • Maintenance engineers assigned to debug, change or modernize COBOL systems.
  • Developers working on a COBOL to Java migration who need to understand both sides.

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