Question

This is a sample program that displays “Hello, world!”:

---- hello.cob -------------------------
      * Sample COBOL program
       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
       PROGRAM-ID. hello.
       PROCEDURE DIVISION.
           DISPLAY "Hello, world!".
           STOP RUN.
----------------------------------------

The compiler, cobc, is executed as follows:

$ cobc -x hello.cob
$ ./hello
Hello, world!

The executable file name (hello in this case) is determined by removing the extension from the source file name.

You can specify the executable file name by specifying the compiler option -o as follows:

$ cobc -x -o hello-world hello.cob
$ ./hello-world
Hello, world!

The program can be written in a more modern style, with free format code, inline comments, the GOBACK verb and an optional END-DISPLAY terminator:

---- hellonew.cob ----------------
*> Sample GnuCOBOL program
identification division.
program-id. hellonew.
procedure division.
display
   "Hello, new world!"
end-display
goback.
----------------------------------

To compile free-format code, you must use the compiler option -free.

$ cobc -x -free hellonew.cob
$ ./hellonew
Hello, new world!