WRITE STATEMENT:

The WRITE Statement verb releases a record in an output file. The syntax for the WRITE statement can be unlike depending on the output device and the medium used. The verb as explained here can be used only to print the results on continuous stationery through a line printer. The form for the WRITE statement in such a situation is

     WRITE   record-name     [FROM identifier-1]

The initial point to be noted is that in the situation of the READ statement the file name is to be specified, while in the case of the WRITE statement it is needed to mention the record name and not the file name. The phrase ADVANCING is used to control the vertical position of each record at the time of the printing on the stationery placed on the printer. 

Whenever the BEFORE phrase is used, then the record is printed before the stationary is advanced, while the AFTER phrase may be used when the intention is to advance the stationary first and then to print the record. When the integer-1 or identifier-1 is mentioned, then the stationary is advanced by the number of lines equivalent to the value of the integers-1 or to the present value of the identifier-1.

If the mnemonic-name is specified, then the printer will be advanced to the carriage control channel declared for the mnemonic-name in the SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph. This selection is provided so that the hardware names that may be peculiar to the particular computer require not appearing in the PROCEDURE DIVISION.

If the FROM option is used, the operation is equal to that of the MOVE identifier-1 TO record-name followed by the WRITE record-name without the FROM clause. It is illegal to use similar storage region for both the record-name and identifier-1.

It must be noted that after WRITE is executed the record is no longer available.