Tracy,

You're absolutely right.  However as a newbie to HP 3000 COBOL (originally Burroughs, Unisys, mbp, RM, MF...) I wanted to try the variations of the SELECT to get a good handle on what they do and how.  Since I'm going to be maintaining other peoples code, better to have an inkling of what all that does before running into it in a program.  Otherwise KISS is the rule.

Also; I didn't mean the COBOL syntax was useless, but that the error message was less than descriptive.

PS: I have never had the great good fortune of doing IBM.

>>> TRACY PIERCE <[log in to unmask]> 06/15/99 06:14AM >>>

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Who wants to remember what parameter is referred to by "the 5th comma"?
Get past the ASSIGN the easy way, and go work on your program (in which
also KISS!).

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