Teach Yourself COBOL in 21 days, Second Edition

Week 3 In Review

Congratulations! You've accomplished your goal of learning COBOL in 21 days. Now that you're on a roll, you can move ahead to the bonus days that have been provided for those who are ambitious enough to take what they've learned in 21 days and add real-world experiences.

Let's take a moment to reflect on what you've learned this week. The concepts of data integrity were intentionally woven into each day because your users will need to know that they can depend on your program's reliability. This trust isn't placed lightly. An unreliable program serves no purpose. The first two days of this week focused on the concepts of data integrity and how to look up information in tables and arrays. These skills ensure that you treat data properly and provide the means for your users to look up information on demand. Who wants to remember everything when you have a computer on hand to look up data? Day 17 enhanced your understanding of index files and provided the means for alternate keys. Day 18 showed you how to call other programs from your program. This concept escapes many programmers, but it significantly increases the power you can give your users. Days 19 and 20 completed the concepts of data entry, one of the primary reasons users will come to count on your COBOL programming prowess. Finally, Day 21 tied together the processes of selecting, sorting, and reporting.

If you choose to tackle the bonus days, you'll find that they aren't necessarily more difficult than any of the previous days. These six days have been included to enhance your real-world understanding of COBOL programming and finish preparing you for situations you might encounter but that are difficult to include in a 21-day course.

Congratulations on a job well done!