Intrinsic Functions

The table below shows all available intrinsic functions.

The Function name column defines the name of the function.

The Function type column defines the type of the function, it can be: Integer, Numeric, Alphabetic, Alphanumeric. When "any" word appears it means that the type of the function depends on the argument type.

The Argument number column defines the number of the arguments. When "arbitrary" word appears it means that the number or arguments is undefined and it can be arbitrary. When 0 appears, it means that the function doesn't has arguments.

The Argument type column defines the type of the arguments, they can be: Integer, Numeric, Alphabetic, Alphanumeric. When "any" appears it means that the type of the argument can be any of theme.

Function name	Function type	Argument number	Argument type	Description
ABS	Numeric	1	Numeric	Absolute value of the argument passed
ACOS	Numeric	1	Numeric	Arccosine of argument
ANNUITY	Numeric	2	Numeric	Annuity of the arguments
ASIN	Numeric	1	Numeric	Arcsine of argument
ATAN	Numeric	1	Numeric	Arctangent of argument
BIN2DEC	Numeric	1	Alphanumeric	Decimal representation of binary data
BYTE-LENGTH	Numeric	1	any	Length of argument in number of bytes
CHAR	Alphanumeric	1	Integer	Character in position of argument
COS	Numeric	1	Numeric	Cosine of argument
CURRENT-DATE	Alphanumeric	0		Current date and time and difference from Greenwich Mean Time
DATE-OF-INTEGER	Integer	1	Integer	Standard date equivalent (YYYYMMDD) of integer date
DATE-TO-YYYYMMDD	Integer	2	Integer	Date with four digits year of a date with two digits year. The second optional parameter is the threshold (default 50)
DAY-OF-INTEGER	Integer	1	Integer	Julian date equivalent (YYYYDDD) of integer date
DAY-TO-YYYYMMDD	Integer	2	Integer	Date with four digits year of a date with two digits year. in the format YYddd The second optional parameter is the threshold (default 50)
DEC2BIN	Alphanumeric	1	Numeric	Binary representation of decimal data
DEC2HEX	Alphanumeric	1	Numeric	Hexadecimal representation of decimal data
DEC2OCT	Alphanumeric	1	Numeric	Octal representation of decimal data
E	Numeric	0		The value of E, the natural base
EXP	Numeric	1	Numeric	E raised to the power of argument
EXP10	Numeric	1	Numeric	E raised to the power of argument
FACTORIAL	Integer	1	Integer	Factorial of argument
FRACTION-PART	Numeric	1	Numeric	Fraction part of argument
HANDLE-TYPE	Integer	1	Integer	resource identified by the handle
HEX2DEC	Numeric	1	Alphanumeric	Decimal representation of hexadecimal data
INTEGER	Integer	1	Numeric	The greatest integer not greater than argument
INTEGER-OF-DATE	Integer	1	Integer	Integer date equivalent of standard date (YYYYMMDD)
INTEGER-OF-DAY	Integer	1	Integer	Integer date equivalent of Julian date (YYYYDDD)
INTEGER-PART	Integer	1	Numeric	Integer part of argument
LENGTH	Integer	1	any	Length of argument
LOG	Numeric	1	Numeric	Natural logarithm of argument
LOG10	Numeric	1	Numeric	Logarithm to base 10 of argument
LOWER-CASE	Alphanumeric	1	Alphanumeric	All letters in the argument are set to lowercase
MAX	any	arbitrary	any	Value of maximum argument
MEAN	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Arithmetic mean of arguments
MEDIAN	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Median of arguments
MIDRANGE	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Mean of minimum and maximum arguments
MIN	any	arbitrary	any	Value of minimum argument
MOD	Integer	2	Integer	argument 1 modulo argument 2
NUMVAL	Alphanumeric	1	Numeric	Numeric value of simple numeric string
NUMVAL-C	Numeric	2	Alphanumeric	Numeric value of numeric string with optional commas and currency sign
OCT2DEC	Numeric	1	Alphanumeric	Decimal representation of octal data
ORD	Integer	1	Alphanumeric	Ordinal position of the argument in collating sequence
ORD-MAX	Integer	1	any	Ordinal position of maximum argument
ORD-MIN	Integer	1	any	Ordinal position of minimum argument
PI	Numeric	0		Value of pi
PRESENT-VALUE	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Present value of a series of future period-end amounts, argument 2 at a discount rate of argument 1
RANDOM	Numeric	1	Integer	Random number between 0 and 1
RANGE	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Value of maximum argument minus value of minimum argument
REM	Numeric	2	Numeric	Remainder of arg 1 / arg 2
REVERSE	Alphanumeric	1	Alphanumeric	Reverse order of the characters of the argument
SIGN	Numeric	1	Numeric	• 1 if argument is positive • 0 if argument is zero • -1 if argument is negative
SIN	Numeric	1	Numeric	Sine of argument
SQRT	Numeric	1	Numeric	Square root of argument
STANDARD- DEVIATION	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Standard deviation of arguments
SUM	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Sum of arguments
TAN	Numeric	1	Numeric	Tangent of argument
TRIM	Alphanumeric	1	Alphanumeric	The argument is trimmed
TRIML	Alphanumeric	1	Alphanumeric	The argument is left trimmed
TRIMR	Alphanumeric	1	Alphanumeric	The argument is right trimmed
UPPER-CASE	Alphanumeric	1	Alphanumeric	All letters in the argument are set to uppercase
VARIANCE	Numeric	arbitrary	Numeric	Variance of argument
WHEN-COMPILED	Alphanumeric	0		Date and time program was compiled
YEAR-TO-YYYY	Numeric	2	Numeric	Four digits year of the first argument, the second optional parameter is the threshold (default 50)

Sample programs for each function are available between isCOBOL Samples.