COBOL allows the use of certain special formats for the CALL statement that enter, rather than initiate, a procedure.

A COBOL program can use a CALL statement with one of the following forms to enter a bound-in procedure:

CALL <section name>.
CALL <section name> USING <parameter list>.

A COBOL program can use any of several forms of the CALL statement to enter an imported library procedure. The following is an example:

CALL “PROCEDUREDIVISION OF OBJECT/COBOL/PROG” USING PARAM1.

COBOL85 allows you to optionally specify an access value of BYTITLE or BYFUNCTION in the CALL statement, as in the following example:

CALL “PROCEDUREDIVISION OF DELTASUPPORT BYFUNCTION” USING PARAM1.

COBOL85 also supports the use of explicit library declarations. For examples of libraries and user programs written in COBOL74 and COBOL85, refer to Using Libraries.

By contrast, the GO and PERFORM statements do not enter procedures. They simply transfer control to a selected paragraph or section without creating an activation record.