COBOL

E204900

high-level programming language procedural programming language programming language

COBOL is a long-established, English-like programming language primarily used for business, finance, and administrative systems on mainframes and enterprise platforms.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Disambiguation Statements Elicitation Referenced by

All labels observed (9)

Label	Occurrences
COBOL canonical	21
COBOL programming language	3
Common Business-Oriented Language	2
COBOL 2002	1
COBOL 2014	1
COBOL on z/OS	1
COBOL-68	1
COBOL-74	1
COBOL-85	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1817757 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: COBOL
Context triple: [IBM i, supportsLanguage, COBOL]

A. PL/I
PL/I is a high-level programming language developed by IBM in the 1960s that combines features from scientific, business, and systems programming languages into a single, general-purpose language.
B. BCPL
BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) is an early, typeless systems programming language developed in the 1960s that significantly influenced the design of the C programming language.
C. Fortran
Fortran is a high-level programming language, particularly strong in numerical and scientific computing, widely used for engineering, physics, and high-performance applications.
D. Algol 68
Algol 68 is a high-level, structured programming language from the ALGOL family, notable for its orthogonal design and influence on many later languages.
E. ABC programming language
ABC is an early high-level, interactive programming language developed at CWI that emphasized readability and simplicity, and later influenced the design of Python.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: COBOL
Target entity description: COBOL is a long-established, English-like programming language primarily used for business, finance, and administrative systems on mainframes and enterprise platforms.

A. PL/I
PL/I is a high-level programming language developed by IBM in the 1960s that combines features from scientific, business, and systems programming languages into a single, general-purpose language.
B. BCPL
BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) is an early, typeless systems programming language developed in the 1960s that significantly influenced the design of the C programming language.
C. Fortran
Fortran is a high-level programming language, particularly strong in numerical and scientific computing, widely used for engineering, physics, and high-performance applications.
D. Algol 68
Algol 68 is a high-level, structured programming language from the ALGOL family, notable for its orthogonal design and influence on many later languages.
E. ABC programming language
ABC is an early high-level, interactive programming language developed at CWI that emphasized readability and simplicity, and later influenced the design of Python.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (53)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	high-level programming language ⓘ procedural programming language ⓘ programming language ⓘ
abbreviationOf	COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Common Business-Oriented Language
backwardCompatibility	strong emphasis ⓘ
designedBy	CODASYL ⓘ
designedFor	administrative systems ⓘ business applications ⓘ finance applications ⓘ
designGoal	portability across systems ⓘ readability by non-programmers ⓘ
executionModel	compiled language ⓘ
fileExtension	.cbl ⓘ .cob ⓘ .cobol ⓘ
firstAppeared	1959 ⓘ
fullName	COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Common Business-Oriented Language
hasStandard	COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: COBOL 2002 COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: COBOL 2014 COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: COBOL-68 COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: COBOL-74 COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: COBOL-85
influenced	SAP ⓘ surface form: ABAP PL/I ⓘ PeopleCode ⓘ
influencedBy	COMTRAN ⓘ FLOW-MATIC ⓘ
notableFeature	English-like syntax ⓘ decimal arithmetic support ⓘ extensive file handling ⓘ fixed-format source layout ⓘ self-documenting code style ⓘ
notableImplementation	GnuCOBOL ⓘ IBM Enterprise COBOL ⓘ Micro Focus COBOL ⓘ
paradigm	imperative ⓘ procedural ⓘ
primaryDomain	enterprise computing ⓘ
primaryPlatform	IBM mainframes ⓘ enterprise servers ⓘ mainframe computers ⓘ
standardizedBy	ANSI ⓘ International Organization for Standardization ⓘ surface form: ISO
supports	batch processing ⓘ online transaction processing ⓘ structured programming (from COBOL-85) ⓘ
typingDiscipline	static typing ⓘ strong typing ⓘ
useCase	banking systems ⓘ government administrative systems ⓘ insurance systems ⓘ payroll processing ⓘ transaction processing ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (32)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

IBM i → supportsLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

z/OS → supports → COBOL ⓘ

IBM RS/6000 systems → supportsProgrammingLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

subject surface form: IBM RS/6000

Grace Hopper → notableWork → COBOL ⓘ

this entity surface form: COBOL programming language

PL/I → influencedBy → COBOL ⓘ

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22 → standardizes → COBOL ⓘ

this entity surface form: COBOL programming language

IBM VisualAge family → programmingLanguageSupported → COBOL ⓘ

MVS → supportsLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

OS/390 → supportsProgrammingLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

Assembler → integratesWith → COBOL ⓘ

this entity surface form: COBOL on z/OS

IMS → supportsLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

CICS Transaction Server → supportsLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

OS/VS1 → supportsProgrammingLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

VMS operating system → supportsProgrammingLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

VMS → supportsProgrammingLanguage → COBOL ⓘ

TOPS-10 → programmingLanguageSupport → COBOL ⓘ

TOPS-20 → programmingLanguageSupport → COBOL ⓘ

COBOL → fullName → COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Common Business-Oriented Language

COBOL → abbreviationOf → COBOL self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Common Business-Oriented Language