$DISPLAY Statement

The $DISPLAY statement displays a message on the standard output device during compilation or includes a version number in the object file.

General Format for Format 1

The Compiler defines constants that identify the type of compilation in effect; use these with the conditional compilation commands. Each compilation produces a __unix or __windows constant, and a __dotnet (for .NET COBOL), __jvm (for JVM COBOL), or __native constant, as appropriate.

Version-number is the content of the entire source line following the "=", excluding leading and trailing spaces.
The character string formed by concatenating "@(#)", version-number and a null character (binary zero) is included in the object file, no matter which type of object file is created. If version-number begins with the characters "@(#)", the system does not concatenate these characters when forming the character string.
Note:
- Version-number can be any text string, however, it is intended to contain a version number for which a pattern matching tool, such as the UNIX sccs "what" utility, can search the object file.
- Unreachable procedural code is eliminated by the Compiler during the optimization phase and the literals used only in that code are discarded. The practice of including version numbers in Procedure Division statements by using the following technique does not work:
```
 filename-what section. move "@(#)filename %I%>" to what-string perform filename-what 
```
- Since the $DISPLAY statement can be specified anywhere in the source code, each text-name (copybook) can have its own version number.
- Older compilers treat a format 2 $DISPLAY statement as a format 1 $DISPLAY statement.