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Answer 1

+6 A:

Normally, I wouldn't give this much help for homework but, since you've put a fair bit of effort into it already and you're unlikely to find many of us dinosaurs here, I'll help you out.

Your problem is here (ignore the things in parentheses on the right, they're just comments to help you out):

200-PROCESS-ONE-RECORD.
    MOVE NAME-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT
    MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT                (overwrite)
    MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT         (overwrite)
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT
    MOVE NAME-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT
    MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT               (overwrite)
    MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT        (overwrite)
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT                           (only wrote one line)

This is the paragraph that processes one record. What you are doing here is putting three things into both the left and right output sections (so that the first two are being overwritten).

What you need is a toggle variable to select whether you're processing a left value or a right value, and the ability to store the left data so you can output them both when you process the right data, something like:

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
    01 ARE-THERE-MORE-RECORDS     PIC X(3) VALUE 'YES'.
    01 DOING-LEFT                 PIC X(3) VALUE 'YES'.
    01 LEFT-NAME-IN               PIC X(20).
    01 LEFT-ADDRESS-IN            PIC X(20).
    01 LEFT-CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN     PIC X(20).

Then modify your record processing code thus (check the IF syntax, it's been a while since I cut any COBOL code):

200-PROCESS-ONE-RECORD.
    IF DOING-LEFT = 'YES' THEN
        PERFORM 201-PROCESS-LEFT-RECORD
    ELSE
        PERFORM 202-PROCESS-RIGHT-RECORD.

201-PROCESS-LEFT-RECORD.
    MOVE NAME-IN TO LEFT-NAME-IN.                      (just store it)
    MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO LEFT-ADDRESS-IN.
    MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO LEFT-CITY-STATE-ZIP.
    MOVE 'NO' TO DOING-LEFT.                           (and toggle to right)

202-PROCESS-RIGHT-RECORD.
    MOVE LEFT-NAME-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT.               (first line, both sides)
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT.
    MOVE NAME-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT.
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT.

    MOVE LEFT-ADDRESS-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT.            (second line, both sides)
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT.
    MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT.
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT.

    MOVE LEFT-CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT.     (third line, both sides)
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT.
    MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT.
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT.

    MOVE 'YES' TO DOING-LEFT.                          (toggle back to left)

Then, at the end, after the file has been fully read, you need to detect if you've populated the left data (i.e., there was an odd number of input lines). This will be the case if DOING-LEFT is set to 'NO'.

I'll leave that to you but it involves moving the left data and populating the right data with spaces, in a manner very similar to 202-PROCESS-RIGHT-RECORD above (nudge, nudge,wink, wink).

And, now that I've had a good look at the desired output, it appears you actually need two copies of each address on both the left and the right. Are you sure that's the way you want to do it since it's a pretty unusual requirement for a mailing label program?

In any case, I'll leave all that code in above since it's a good way to do the one-each method of mailing labels but the code you seem to need is much simpler, a very slight variation of the 202-PROCESS-RIGHT-RECORD paragraph.

Forget all the extra working storage I mentioned, and just change 200-PROCESS-ONE-RECORD to:

200-PROCESS-ONE-RECORD.
    MOVE NAME-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT.
    MOVE NAME-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT.
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT.

    MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT.
    MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT.
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT.

    MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT.
    MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT.
    MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT.
    WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT.

paxdiablo 2010-10-21 05:33:38

@paxdiablo that did seem to help a bit. That you very much for your assistance.

Kimmy1235 2010-10-21 06:09:13

I think you solved a slightly different problem than the one being asked.

NealB 2010-10-21 14:05:39

Answer 2

+1 A:

I think your second attempt was nearly correct. As Paxdiablo pointed out in his answer, the problem you have is overwriting data.

If I understand your problem correctly, you read in a single record containing a complete address (Name, Address, City-State-Zip) and have to print out two copies of it side by side.

Notice that for every line you read, you need to print 3. Also notice that you only have one output record buffer. This means you can only process one output line at a time. The solution is to move each address component into the left and right hand side of the ouput line, output the line and then move on to the next address component. Since there are 3 address components, you end up printing 3 lines for each one read.

Try modifying paragraph 200-PROCESS-ONE-RECORD as follows

200-PROCESS-ONE-RECORD. 
MOVE NAME-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT
MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT
MOVE NAME-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT
MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT 
WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT

MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT
MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT
MOVE ADDRESS-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT
MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT 
WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT 

MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO LEFT-LABEL-OUT
MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-OUT 
MOVE CITY-STATE-ZIP-IN TO RIGHT-LABEL-OUT 
MOVE SPACES TO BLANK-A-OUT 
WRITE LABEL-RECORD-OUT

This takes one input line, produces 3 output lines. You might want to output a fourth blank line to separate addresses (as illustrated in your sample output - I will let you figure out how to get that done).

I think Paxdiablo's solution solved a slightly different problem where you would be printing one copy of each address but printing addresses 2 across.

BTW... Despite the number of disparaging "drive by" comments your question got, COBOL is still actively used in some segments of this industry.

NealB 2010-10-21 14:03:37

@After trying out paxdiablo's version and sleeping on it I awoke with an idea just like this one remembering that he was writing back and forth each time new data was input. Yours was for all reasons right except I had to space between labels, but for that all I did was make another paragraph of code and sent spaces to each feild. Thank you for all you help.

Kimmy1235 2010-10-21 14:44:37

Aarrgghh, I just spent ten minutes figuring out what your comment on my answer meant and fixing the code only to see you've already answered with pretty much the same code (Scène à faire, I guess, COBOL's at the other end of the spectrum from Perl's "there's a billion ways to do it" mindset). Anyway, +1 for a better answer.

paxdiablo 2010-10-21 23:34:39

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