BabyCobol: LOOP

Format

Remarks

• the VARYING clause can only refer to a numeric field
• if the VARYING clause is present but the FROM clause is missing, then the initial value is 1
• if the VARYING clause is present but the TO clause is missing, then the final value is the highest possible for the varied field's type
• if the VARYING clause is present but the BY clause is missing, then the looping step is 1
• Essentially, the hard part of this statement stems from the fact that, unlike in modern languages where the loop construct has a clearly defined header and footer, its metainformation can be scattered across the body. This means that while parsing, being inside the loop intrinsically broadens the choice of possible statements by three.

Origins

BabyCobol is a project by Dr. Vadim Zaytsev a.k.a. @grammarware. Page last updated in October 2023.