#16 Exception loading copybook with nested Occurs-Depending

[Anonymous]

I am seeing an error when loading a copybook with nested instances of 'occurs-depending'. Here is the copybook:

       01 ARRAY-COPYBOOK.
          03 NUM-PEOPLE            pic 9(12).
          03 PEOPLE occurs 0 to 3 times depending on NUM-PEOPLE.
             05 F-NAME             pic X(40).
             05 L-NAME             pic X(40).
             05 NUM-ID             pic 999.
             05 ID-X occurs 0 to 2 times depending on NUM-ID.
                10 ID              pic 99999.

This is the stack trace:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Error With Occurs Depending On Field: NUM-ID
        at net.sf.JRecord.External.Def.DependingOn.updateField(DependingOn.java:151)
        at net.sf.JRecord.External.Def.DependingOn.updateField(DependingOn.java:160)
        at net.sf.JRecord.Details.RecordDetail.setDependingOn(RecordDetail.java:1100)
        at net.sf.JRecord.External.ToLayoutDetail.toRecordDetail(ToLayoutDetail.java:178)
        at net.sf.JRecord.External.ToLayoutDetail.getLayout(ToLayoutDetail.java:81)
        at net.sf.JRecord.External.CopybookLoaderFactory.getLayout(CopybookLoaderFactory.java:270)
        at OccursDependingTest.main(OccursDependingTest.java:11)

And the program doing the loading:

import net.sf.JRecord.Details.LayoutDetail;
import net.sf.JRecord.External.CopybookLoaderFactory;
import net.sf.JRecord.Log.TextLog;

public class OccursDependingTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String copybookFileName = "NestedOccursDepending.cbl";
        CopybookLoaderFactory f = CopybookLoaderFactory.getInstance();
        try {
            LayoutDetail layout =(f.getLayout(CopybookLoaderFactory.COBOL_LOADER, copybookFileName, 0, "CP037", 0, new TextLog()));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

This is with version 0.81.1. Here is a similar issue from a while back which might be related: https://sourceforge.net/p/jrecord/bugs/14/.

[Anonymous]

The issue might be that the second 'occurs-depending' field depends on a field that isn't at the 03 level. If I change the copybook to

       01 ARRAY-COPYBOOK.
          03 NUM-PEOPLE            pic 9(12).
          03 NUM-ID                pic 999.
          03 PEOPLE occurs 0 to 3 times depending on NUM-PEOPLE.
             05 F-NAME             pic X(40).
             05 L-NAME             pic X(40).
             05 ID-X occurs 0 to 2 times depending on NUM-ID.
                10 ID              pic 99999.

it loads fine.

[Bruce Martin]

The problem is definitely with NUM-ID being part of the array. It is looking a plain field called
NUM-ID, not an array-field NUM-ID (Array-Index).

Unfortunatly there is no easy way to change this. The depending on fields can not be part of the parent array.

How essential is this ??? because it will be a lot of work to handle ???

[John]

Thanks for taking a look at this. Unfotunately, I am writing an application which is intended to handle arbitrary copybooks, so I just won't be able to handle ones like that.

[Bruce Martin]

I suspect that:

• Earlier versions of the Cobol standard did not allow it, individual Cobol implementations may implement it as a standard.
• It is fairly rare

[Bruce Martin]

I posted the original Copybook in a Cobol Forum:

   01 ARRAY-COPYBOOK.
      03 NUM-PEOPLE            pic 9(12).
      03 PEOPLE occurs 0 to 3 times depending on NUM-PEOPLE.
         05 F-NAME             pic X(40).
         05 L-NAME             pic X(40).
         05 NUM-ID             pic 999.
         05 ID-X occurs 0 to 2 times depending on NUM-ID.
            10 ID              pic 99999.

The nesting NUM-ID in a Occurs depending array is not supported by IBM Cobol:

 7  IGYGR1106-W   The "OCCURS DEPENDING ON" object "NUM-PEOPLE" was defined with more than 9 digits.  Only the rightmost 9 digits will be used in the length calculations.

11  IGYGR1263-S   "OCCURS DEPENDING ON" object "NUM-ID" was defined as a table element.  The "DEPENDING ON" phrase was discarded.

11  IGYGR1116-S   The "DEPENDING ON" object for table "ID-X" was invalid.  The "DEPENDING ON" phrase was discarded.

Some thought Microfocus Cobol might support this

IBM Cobol requires occurs depending field to be in a Fixed position. Even the nested occurs depending started as an IBM extension to the standard Cobol

[Bruce Martin]

John, I have started work on supporting Complex Occurs Depending, there is a new version of JRecord:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/jrecord/files/jrecord/Version_0.81.2_Test/JRecord_Version_0.81.2_update.7z/download

This should work with the last Cobol2Xml:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/coboltoxml/files/CobolToXml/Version_0.81.1/

I have done some testing on 2 level Complex OD but not 3 level OD (yet).

It would be useful If some one could check check against real Live files as I do not have any. There are more changes and Testing before I do a full release of the JRecord. Probably a couple of weeks

[Bruce Martin]

Will look at.

[Bruce Martin]

I have now added support for nested Occurs Depending:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/jrecord/files/jrecord/Version_0.81.3/