The CONTINUE statement is a no operation statement. It indicates that no executable statement is present. Processing is continued with the next executable statement.
Format
CONTINUE
Syntax rule
The CONTINUE statement may be used anywhere a conditional statement or an imperative-statement may be used.
General rule
The CONTINUE statement has no effect on the execution of the program.
Example 8-29
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. CONT1.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
SPECIAL-NAMES.
TERMINAL IS T.
DATA DIVISION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
77 N PIC 9.
77 K PIC 9(3).
77 Z PIC 9(6) VALUE ALL ZERO.
77 E PIC 9(3).
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
PROC SECTION.
INPUT-PAR.
DISPLAY "Enter upper limit N" UPON T.
ACCEPT N FROM T.
IF N NUMERIC
THEN
CONTINUE
ELSE
DISPLAY "Incorrect entry" UPON T
PERFORM INPUT-PAR
END-IF.
COMPUTATION.
PERFORM WITH TEST BEFORE VARYING K FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL K > N
COMPUTE E = K ** 3
ADD E TO Z
END-PERFORM
DISPLAY "Result = " Z UPON T.
FINISH-PAR.
STOP RUN.
The effect of CONTINUE is to make the IF statement syntactically correct even though the THEN branch does not contain an executable statement.
Example 8-30
READ INPUT-DATEI AT END CONTINUE.
AT END is used in order to avoid program abortion at the end of the file; CONTINUE specifies the unconditional statement which is required by the statement syntax, even though nothing is to be done at this point in the program.