Columns

The COBOL Unicode conversion utility ensures that edited lines do not go past the column 72. If the conversion would normally cause a line to exceed column 72, the utility inserts a line break before column 72 to make the long line into two separate lines.

The COBOL Unicode conversion utility for Microsoft Windows and Unix environments accepts various directives in the first six columns of COBOL code to that COBOL programs can use to tailor the conversion for specific code. The COBOL Unicode conversion utility for z/OS does not use any directive, therefore, the above rules applies to all the COBOL code.