Question

How do I concatenate together two strings, of unknown length, in COBOL? So for example:

WORKING-STORAGE.     FIRST-NAME    PIC X(15) VALUE SPACES.     LAST-NAME     PIC X(15) VALUE SPACES.     FULL-NAME     PIC X(31) VALUE SPACES. 

If FIRST-NAME = 'JOHN ' and LAST-NAME = 'DOE ', how can I get:

FULL-NAME = 'JOHN DOE                       ' 

as opposed to:

FULL-NAME = 'JOHN            DOE            ' 

Answer 1

I believe the following will give you what you desire.

STRING FIRST-NAME DELIMITED BY ' ', ' ', LAST-NAME DELIMITED BY SIZE INTO FULL-NAME.