* The paragraph name will be in column 10 as described above. Sentences should be indented by 2 from the paragraph name, appearing in column 12.
* If a sentence does not fit onto one line, the end of the sentence should be continued on the next line, indented by four from the first line of the sentence.
* Clauses which affect the execution of the statement should be placed on a separate line so they stand out. Since these are continuations of the statement, they too will be indented by four.
* Statements which are dependent on conditional code should be indented by two from the statement they are dependent on.
* Indent a scope terminator to match its corresponding verb.
The following pieces of code illustrate good indenting practices:
DATA DIVISION
01
MAJOR-ITEM.
05
INTERMEDIATE-ITEM-1.
10
MINOR-ITEM-1A
PIC X(5).
10
MINOR-ITEM-1B
PIC X(15).
05
INTERMEDIATE-ITEM-2.
10
MINOR-ITEM-2A
PIC X(20).
10
MINOR-ITEM-2B
PIC 99V99.
PROCEDURE DIVISION
GET-NEXT-RECORD.
READ INVENTORY-MASTER-FILE
AT END
DISPLAY "END OF FILE. RECORDS PROCESSED="
INV-RECORD-COUNT
SET END-OF-FILE-SWITCH TO TRUE
END-READ.
* If a sentence does not fit onto one line, the end of the sentence should be continued on the next line, indented by four from the first line of the sentence.
* Clauses which affect the execution of the statement should be placed on a separate line so they stand out. Since these are continuations of the statement, they too will be indented by four.
* Statements which are dependent on conditional code should be indented by two from the statement they are dependent on.
* Indent a scope terminator to match its corresponding verb.
The following pieces of code illustrate good indenting practices:
DATA DIVISION
01
MAJOR-ITEM.
05
INTERMEDIATE-ITEM-1.
10
MINOR-ITEM-1A
PIC X(5).
10
MINOR-ITEM-1B
PIC X(15).
05
INTERMEDIATE-ITEM-2.
10
MINOR-ITEM-2A
PIC X(20).
10
MINOR-ITEM-2B
PIC 99V99.
PROCEDURE DIVISION
GET-NEXT-RECORD.
READ INVENTORY-MASTER-FILE
AT END
DISPLAY "END OF FILE. RECORDS PROCESSED="
INV-RECORD-COUNT
SET END-OF-FILE-SWITCH TO TRUE
END-READ.