Code to read Cobol data files

[Al Christians]

none wrote:
> Hi,
> Any one know of some code to read cobol data files....
> 
> thanks
> timb

I posted some here maybe 5+ years ago that would convert COBOL comp-3, 
comp-4, and comp-5 fields (as from Realia) to  whatever.  I suppose you 
can still find it in google somewhere.

There was some help for cracking one of the other COBOL file formats at 
a site called Wotsit's file formats or something like that.  This helped 
me access data out of ISAM files from one of the non-Realia desktop 
COBOLs.  It was one of the more popular COBOL versions way back in the 
1980's, but I don't recall anymore which one it was, but I'd guess RM 
Cobol if I had to.

COBOL has/had an indexed file type defined in the language, and the 
COBOL vendors each implemented it independently, I think.  So there are 
variations in both the coding of various field/record types and the way 
that the files are put together.  But Python can handle it if you can 
figure out the rules.


Al