ANSI format conforms to the American National Standard COBOL reference format. It describes COBOL programs in terms of character positions on an input line. A source program line has 80 character positions: Margin L C A B R | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------+ column | 1 - 6 | 7 | 8 - 11 | 12 - 72 | 73 - 80 | +--------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | Area A Area B Identification Area | | | Indicator Area | Sequence Number Area The compiler expects ANSI format only when the command line includes the /ANSI_FORMAT qualifier.