Programming language · 1959

COBOL

Programming language with English-like syntax.

AssemblyWritten in

1959First released

Grace Hopper and CODASYLDeveloper

staticTyping

CompilerInfluence

Replacedassembly for business data processing on mainframes

Being replaced byJava and C# for new systems, though COBOL still runs core banking and government batch jobs

What is COBOL written in?

The COBOL compiler is written in Assembly (documented).

What COBOL is used for

COBOL still runs a huge share of the world's banking, insurance, and government batch systems, prized for stable, readable business data processing on mainframes.

Notable software: core transaction systems at banks and government agencies, an estimated majority of daily business transactions still touch COBOL.

Quick Facts

Designed by: Grace Hopper and CODASYL
Developer: International Organization for Standardization and American National Standards Institute
First released: 1959
Typing: static
Filename extension: .cbl, .cob, .cpy

About COBOL

COBOL is a programming language with English-like syntax. It is a statically typed language that compiles ahead of time to native machine code. It supports imperative and procedural programming.

COBOL first appeared in 1959 and was designed by Grace Hopper and CODASYL. Development is led by International Organization for Standardization and American National Standards Institute. Its popularity peaked around 1980.

How COBOL is implemented

In the Language Lineage dataset, its compiler is written in Assembly.

COBOL in the language family tree

COBOL drew on ideas from FLOW-MATIC, COMTRAN, and Fortran and went on to influence PL/I.

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

Frequently Asked Questions

What language is COBOL written in?

COBOL is primarily implemented in Assembly. See the implementation section above for details and source references.

What languages influenced COBOL?

COBOL was influenced by FLOW-MATIC, COMTRAN, Fortran among others. See the influence section above for the full list.

Which languages did COBOL influence?

COBOL influenced PL/I among others.

When was COBOL first released?

COBOL was first released in 1959. It was designed by Grace Hopper and CODASYL.

Evidence Sources

Discover More

What is COBOL written in? What are programming languages written in? COBOL in the language family tree Interactive programming language graph Languages COBOL influenced: PL/I Languages that influenced COBOL: FLOW-MATIC Languages that influenced COBOL: COMTRAN

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<iframe src="https://www.languagelineage.org/embed?lang=cobol" width="100%" height="500" loading="lazy" style="border:0" title="COBOL relationship graph"></iframe>

Please attribute the visualization to Language Lineage and link to the COBOL source record.

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