Panic in COBOL

Our program demonstrates how to handle unexpected errors or conditions. In COBOL, we use the STOP RUN statement to abruptly terminate the program, which is similar to the concept of panic in other languages.

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. PANIC-EXAMPLE.

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE-CONTROL.
    SELECT TEMP-FILE ASSIGN TO "/tmp/file"
        ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL.

DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.
FD TEMP-FILE.
01 TEMP-RECORD PIC X(80).

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 WS-ERROR-MESSAGE PIC X(50).

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
MAIN-PROCEDURE.
    DISPLAY "Starting the program"
    
    * This is equivalent to the first panic in the original example
    MOVE "a problem" TO WS-ERROR-MESSAGE
    PERFORM HANDLE-ERROR
    
    * This part demonstrates file handling error
    OPEN OUTPUT TEMP-FILE
    IF NOT FILE-STATUS = "00"
        MOVE "Error creating file" TO WS-ERROR-MESSAGE
        PERFORM HANDLE-ERROR
    END-IF
    
    CLOSE TEMP-FILE
    
    STOP RUN.

HANDLE-ERROR.
    DISPLAY "ERROR: " WS-ERROR-MESSAGE
    STOP RUN.

Running this program will cause it to terminate abruptly, print an error message, and exit with a non-zero status.

When the first HANDLE-ERROR is performed, the program exits without reaching the rest of the code. If you’d like to see the program try to create a temp file, comment out the first PERFORM HANDLE-ERROR.

$ cobc -x panic-example.cob
$ ./panic-example
Starting the program
ERROR: a problem

Note that in COBOL, it’s common to use condition handling and status codes for error management. The STOP RUN statement is used here to simulate a panic-like behavior, but in real COBOL programs, more structured error handling methods are typically employed.

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Panic in COBOL