Problem:

The directive used for compiling is

 - dialect(ENTCOBOL) charset(ascii) SHOW-DIR copyext(cpy,cob,cpy) initcall "rtsora_t.so" p(cobsql) CSQLT=ORACLE8 DEBUGFILE SQLDEBUG MAKESYN VERBOSE end-c COMP5=NO picx=varchar2 SQLCHECK=FULL USERID=POC_USER/POC_USER@IKNPOC p(cp) endp FOLDCALLNAME LIST() OUTDD(SYSOUT,121,R) OLDNEXTSENTENCE endp;

One of the queries is returning an "ORA-01403: no data found" message, even though the data is present in the table.

-EXEC SQL
 SELECT CUSTOMER_NBR,
 CONTRACT_ID,
 CONTRACT_STATUS,
 EFFECTIVE_DATE,
 ACQUISITION_DATE,
 SETUP_DATE,
 CYCLE_DATE,
 LATEST_END_DATE,
 DT_FOR_INVOICING,
 PREBILL_SPAN,
 LATE_CHRG_DATE,
 LATE_CHARGE_NBR,
 BILL_DATE,
 COLL_FIRST_UNPD,
 CURRENT_AGED,
 LEO_STATUS,
 BRANCH_CO_NBR,
 BRANCH_NBR,
 SUSPEND_DATE,
 CLOSE_BILL_IND,
 LEO_IND
 INTO :ALF4000-CONTRACT:ALF4000-STAT-CD
 FROM CONTRACT
 WHERE CUSTOMER_NBR = :ALFSQL-CUSTOMER-NBR
 AND CONTRACT_ID= :ALFSQL-CONTRACT-ID
END-EXEC.

Resolution:

Use CHARF instead of VARCHAR in the PICX directive.

The PICX directive specifies the default datatype of PIC X variables. The syntax for PICX is:

PICX={CHARF | VARCHAR2}

The default value is CHARF

The PICX directive can be entered only on the command line or in a configuration file.

Starting in Pro*COBOL 8.0, the default datatype of PIC X, N, or G variables was changed from VARCHAR2 to CHARF. PICX is provided for backward compatibility.

This new default behavior is consistent with the normal COBOL move semantics. Note that this is a change in behavior for the case where you are inserting a PIC X variable (with MODE=ORACLE) into a VARCHAR2 column. Any trailing blanks which had formerly been trimmed, will be preserved.

Note also, that the new default lessens the occurrence of the following:

Using a PIC X bind variable initialized with trailing blanks in a WHERE clause would never match a value with the same number of trailing blanks which was stored in a char column, because the bind variable's trailing blanks were stripped before the comparison.