Picture clause

A picture clause is an element in programming languages that is used to describe a datum, by using sample characters that indicate the item characteristics and size.

History

The picture clause was first used in the COMTRAN (Commercial Translator) language developed by Bob Bemer of IBM in 1957. In 1959, it was incorporated into the original definition of COBOL. Since then, many other programming languages have copied this feature.

Formatting

A picture clause is made up of various format characters, each of which represents a certain portion of the data item. Each format character can be repeated or followed by a repeat number, which specifies the number of times the format item occurs in the data item. Some examples (from COBOL) are:

Examples [These examples are from COBOL.]

Footnotes