CBDEFAULT Directive

This directive affects only iss files and not EFD files, therefore it can only be used with isCOBOL SQL Server. It allows the specification of the initial value for a specific field. FD fields are automatically initialized to space if they’re alphanumeric and to zero if they’re numeric or dates. The default initialization can be changed by using the -dv compiler option. If you need a specific field of the FD to be initialized to a particular value, you can take advantage of the $EFD CBDEFAULT directive. If CBDEFAULT and BINDEFAULT are set on the same field, CBDEFAULT will have priority.

$EFD CBDEFAULT=DefaultValue

or

*(( EFD CBDEFAULT=DefaultValue ))

or

*>(( EFD CBDEFAULT=DefaultValue ))

DefaultValue is generated in the iss file as is, without any conversion.

Example

The following setting initializes field-1 to “A” .

$EFD CBDEFAULT='A'  03 field-1 PIC X.