CRITICAL
Rule Definition
The ALTER statement is error-prone. If it is used in Cobol programs, then GO TO statements as they appear in the listing may not be those that will be encountered by the program at run time. The ALTER statement makes the maintenance programmer's job more difficult.
Remediation
If you need to change the processing sequence due to a certain condition, then use an alternative set of PERFORM or GO TO statements.
Reference
IBM Enterprise Cobol for z/OS - Programming Guide
Related Technologies
Cobol
Technical Criterion
Programming Practices - Structuredness
About CAST Appmarq
CAST Appmarq is by far the biggest repository of data about real IT systems. It's built on thousands of analyzed applications, made of 35 different technologies, by over 300 business organizations across major verticals. It provides IT Leaders with factual key analytics to let them know if their applications are on track.