How Did COBOL Influence the Structure of Modern Programming Languages?

💡 The Answer

• COBOL's division structure (IDENTIFICATION, ENVIRONMENT, DATA, PROCEDURE) inspired modular programming.
• It introduced hierarchical data definitions that predated structured data types in later languages.
• File processing verbs like READ, WRITE, and OPEN/CLOSE became standard I/O paradigms.
• COBOL's influence is seen in PL/I, Ada, and even aspects of modern SQL.