Aimed as a resource book rather than a classical textbook, this comprehensive coverage of all the major COBOL 85 commands, perfectly complements COBOL for Students (Parkin/Yorke), and will be invaluable to all students and current users of COBOL. It is organised around each of the command words making it easy to look up and review topics. As such it will also be useful to those wanting to learn some of the more sophisticated commands. Cobol by Command covers essentially all of the features of COBOL 85 with the exception of those topics marked as obsolete, i.e. the topics that will not appear in COBOL 9X. A chapter on the newly introduced COBOL functions is included. Each sample program illustrates one COBOL feature, providing the reader with a simple but complete example on how to use a COBOL verb and in addition many sample program segments are also given. Each topic is essentially covered in one section thus making it easier for the reader to answer most query. As a guide each chapter begins with a list of objectives and the topics that should be mastered before proceeding to the next chapter.