Some COBOL data types have C/C++ equivalents, but others do not. When you pass data between COBOL programs and C/C++ functions, be sure to limit data exchange to appropriate data types.
By default, COBOL passes arguments BY REFERENCE. If you pass an argument BY REFERENCE, C/C++ gets a pointer to the argument. If you pass an argument BY VALUE, COBOL passes the actual argument. You can use BY VALUE only for the following data types:
Example: COBOL program calling C functions
Example: C programs that are called by and call COBOL
Example: COBOL program calling C++ function
related tasks
Sharing data
related references
COBOL and C/C++ data types