Test Papers / Previous Question Papers of IGNOU CS03 File Structure and Programming in Cobol December 2000

PGDCA / MCA (I Yr) / BCA
Term-End Examination

January, 2001

CS03 : File Structure and Programming in Cobol

Time: 2 hours
Maximum Marks: 60

1 (a) "A well structured program uses modularisation organisation". Comment on the above statement. How may modularisation be done in COBOL? Explain with the help of an example.

(b) How can you represent a two dimensional array in COBOL? Explain with the help of one example. How can you find existence of a value in that array?

(c) How can you perform simple arithmetic operations in COBOL? Can a complex arithmetic expression be represented in one statement in COBOL. If yes; give example. If no, show how will you be able to represent operation in that case.

(d) How can you check in COBOL whether a given data value is valid or not? Explain with the help of an example.

(e) Suggest the application where sequential file organisation will be the preferred organisation. How do you update sequential file? Explain with an example.

(f) What is the need of Working Storage Section? Why do you need level 77 and level 88 entries? Give example.

2 A business organisation keeps its inventory using a maser file. The daily transactions are recorded in a transaction file and at the end of the day master records are updated. Write a program in COBOL to do the above processing. Make suitable assumptions, if any. Select a proper file organisation. The structure of master and transaction files are as under:

Master file:

item_code 5 alphabets
item_name 30 alphabets
quantity in stock 10 numeric digits
Date of last update 8 characters

Transaction file:

Date of transaction 8 characters
item_code 5 alphabets
quantity sold 10 numeric digits
The program should identify any possible error.

3 A university had two centers. Both the centers had maintained the list of students. However, some of the students were registered in both the centers. Write a program in COBOL for the university to generate a consolidated list of total students registered with it. A student registered in two different courses will appear only once in the consolidated list.

The format of the files are as under:

Student files (Center 1 and Center 2)

student_id 9 numeric digits
stuent_name 25 characters
course_registered 20 characters
Date of registration 8 characters

Consolidated list:

student_id 9 numeric digits
student_name 25 characters
first course registered 20 characters
Date of first course
registration 8 characters

4 Write a program to create an employee pay file having relative file organisation. Presently the data is stored in a transaction file. The transaction and employee pay file (both) have the following format:

employee_no 5 characters
employee_name 25 characters
employee_basic_pay 10 numeric digits
benefits 10 numeric digits

5 Explain the following COBOL verbs with one example each:
(a) MOVE CORRESPONDING statement
(b) DIVIDE statement with ROUNDED, REMAINDER and ON SIZE ERROR option
(c) REDEFINES clause
(d) PERFORM statement with VARYING and THROUGH options (e) INVALID KEY clause in case of Indexed file organisation.