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COBOL, DATA_DIVISION, clauses, RECORD

 *Conan The Librarian

  The RECORD clause specifies: (1) the number of character positions in
  a fixed length record, (2) variable length record format, or (3) the
  minimum and maximum number of character positions in a variable
  length record.

  1 - 1format CONTAINS

  The RECORD clause specifies: (1) the number of character positions in
  a fixed length record, (2) variable length record format, or (3) the
  minimum and maximum number of character positions in a variable
  length record.

  Format 1 -

   RECORD CONTAINS [shortest-rec TO] longest-rec CHARACTERS

 1.1 - shortest-rec

  is an integer that specifies the minimum number of character
  positions in a variable-length record.

 1.2 - longest-rec

  is an integer greater than shortest-rec.  It specifies the maximum
  number of character positions in a variable-length record or the
  size of a fixed-length record.

  2 - 2format VARYING

  The RECORD clause specifies: (1) the number of character positions in
  a fixed length record, (2) variable length record format, or (3) the
  minimum and maximum number of character positions in a variable
  length record.

  Format 2 -

   RECORD IS VARYING IN SIZE [FROM shortest-rec] [TO longest-rec]
                             CHARACTERS [DEPENDING ON depending-item]

 2.1 - shortest-rec

  is an integer that specifies the minimum number of character
  positions in a variable-length record.

 2.2 - longest-rec

  is an integer greater than shortest-rec.  It specifies the maximum
  number of character positions in a variable-length record or the
  size of a fixed-length record.

 2.3 - depending-item

  is the identifier of an elementary unsigned integer data item in
  the Working-Storage or Linkage Section.  It specifies the number
  of character positions for an output operation, and it contains
  the number of character positions after a successful input
  operation.
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