Beginning COBOL for Programmers is a comprehensive sophisticated tutorial and modular skills reference on the COBOL programming language for established programmers. This book is for you if you are a developer who would like toampmdashor mustampmdashadd COBOL to your repertoire. Perhaps you recognize the opportunities presented by the current COBOL skills crisis or are working in a mission critical enterprise which retains legacy COBOL applications. Whatever your situation Beginning COBOL for Programmers meets your needs as an established programmer moving to COBOL.Beginning COBOL for Programmers includes comprehensive coverage of ANS 85 COBOL features and techniques including control structures condition names sequential and direct access files data redefinition string handling decimal arithmetic subprograms and the report writer. The final chapter includes a substantial introduction to objectoriented COBOL.Benefiting from over one hundred example programs youamprsquoll receive an extensive introduction to the core and advanced features of the COBOL language and will learn to apply these through comprehensive and varied exercises. If youve inherited some legacy COBOL youamprsquoll be able to grasp the COBOL idioms understand the constructs and recognize whats happening in the code youamprsquore working with.Todayamprsquos enterprise application developers will find that COBOL skills open newampmdashor oldampmdashdoors and this extensive COBOL reference is the book to help you acquire and develop your COBOL skills.