Conditional compilation provides a mechanism for selectively compiling part or all of the COBOL source. Conditional compilation
is controlled by
$IF,
$ELSE, and
$END constructs, which behave in a similar way to the COBOL IF construct. Conditional compilation also supplies the
$DISPLAY Statement, which can be used to display a message during compilation or include a version number in the object file. The
$SET statement can be used to define compiler directives for use in $IF statements.
Note: The compiler has special conditional compilation options that turn on compiler directives and set constants to values. There
is also a compiler option (
-Cg) that turns of conditional compiling features. See the ACUCOBOL-GT Users Guide,
Conditional Compilation Options for details.
Syntax Rules
- Conditional compilation statements are indicated by a dollar sign ($) in the indicator area of the source line followed by
one of the key words IF, DISPLAY, ELSE, END, and SET.
- Conditional compilation should not be used to split a COBOL character string; that is, continuation lines should not be split
by conditional compilation controls.