I am getting compilation error as,
A "COPY" statement with "REPLACING" phrase was found within a nested "COPY".
This is our compilation setting that we can not use REPLACING verb in nested copy. We have one copybook which is having multiple copy statements with replacing verb. Can anyone help me to resolve this error?
Nesting COPYBOOKS in COBOL is a bit of a trick. In general
you may nest copybooks only if they do not
contain the REPLACING
phrase and do not cause recursion.
Suppose you had the following two copybooks:
COPYBOOK ABC
01 :A:-VAR-A1 PIC X.
01 :A:-VAR-A2 PIC X.
COPY XYZ REPLACING ==:A:== BY ==B==.
and
COBPYOOK XYZ
01 :A:-VAR-X1 PIC X.
01 :A:-VAR-X2 PIC X.
The nesting in COPYBOOK ABC is not allowed because it contains a REPLACING
phrase.
However, you can do the following. Drop RELACING
from COPYBOOK ABC so
it becomes:
COPYBOOK ABC
01 :A:-VAR-A1 PIC X.
01 :A:-VAR-A2 PIC X.
COPY XYZ.
Now include COPYBOOK ABC into your source program as follows:
REPLACE ==:A:== BY ==B==.
COPY ABC.
REPLACE OFF.
The REPLACE
directive causes all occurances of :A:
to
be replaced by B
until a REPLACE OFF
directive is encountered, and these
replacements occur after all COPY
directives have been actioned. The net
result of the above statements would be:
01 B-VAR-A1 PIC X. <== from ABC
01 B-VAR-A2 PIC X. <== from ABC
01 B-VAR-X1 PIC X. <== Nested copy of XYZ from ABC
01 B-VAR-X2 PIC X. <== Nested copy of XYZ from ABC
This is the only 'legal' way of performing replacements to nested copybooks in COBOL that I am aware of.