Method Invocation

The syntax of a standard Java object method invocation is:

[result] = ObjectName.method [(parameters)];

The equivalent COBOL syntax is:

[SET result TO] ObjectName:>method [(parameters)]

Where:

•	ObjectName can be:

a.	the name of a data-item that contains the object reference, if we’ve created a new instance of the object (e.g. as shown above with java.io.BufferedReader)

b.	the logical-class-name as defined in the REPOSITORY, if we’re invoking a static method (e.g. methods in the class "java.lang.String")

•	result can be any COBOL data-item that is of suitable type to receive the method's return value.

NOTE: While ObjectName is not case sensitive because it is COBOL data-item, the name of the method is case sensitive because Java language is case sensitive.

The following Java syntax:

[ObjectType] resultingObjectName = ObjectName.method [(parameters)];

is translated to COBOL as:

SET resultingObjectName TO ObjectName:>method [(parameters)] [AS ObjectType]

•	[AS ObjectType] is not always necessary. In most cases the isCOBOL Compiler automatically performs the proper type cast while compiling the OOP statement.

Note: isCOBOL doesn’t support autoboxing, you can’t pass native data types where Object are required. For example, consider the following constructor:

myMethod (Object...)

With Java (starting from version 1.5) you’re allowed to call the method in this way:

int i = 0; long l = 2; myMethod (i, l);

With isCOBOL you need to use java.lang objects instead:

[...] configuration section. repository.  class JInt as "java.lang.Integer"  class JLong as "java.lang.Long" [...] procedure division [...] myMethod (JInt:>new(0), JLong:>new(2));; [...]