Problem:

When compiling a program, the following error is reported by the compiler:

Operand time-of-day is not declared

Resolution:

In both the Server Express documentation and the Visual COBOL documentation, the special register TIME-OF-DAY is documented as being applicable to the OSVS dialect. In addition, the documentation generally says:

 TIME-OF-DAY    9(6) DISPLAY

The TIME-OF-DAY special register contains the value of the current time of day (24-hour clock) (as supplied by the COBOL execution environment), in the form: hhmmss where hh =hour, mm=minutes, and ss= seconds.  TIME-OF-DAY is valid only as the sending area of a MOVE statement.

Based on the above, here is a sample program I wrote to test this:

000001 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
000002 PROGRAM-ID. TOD-TEST.
000003 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
000004 CONFIGURATION SECTION.
000005 DATA DIVISION.
000006 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
000007 01 TIME-OF-DAY-WS PIC 9(6).
000008 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
000009     MOVE TIME-OF-DAY TO TIME-OF-DAY-WS.
000010     DISPLAY 'TIME-OF-DAY IS ' TIME-OF-DAY-WS.
000011     STOP RUN.

This compiles successfully under Visual COBOL, and also under Server Express, if and only if one the following compiler directives is specified: OSVS or DOSVS or DIALECT"OSVS" or DIALECT"DOSVS".  Here are example command lines:

$> cob TOD-TEST.cbl                   <-- Fails
     9     MOVE TIME-OF-DAY TO TIME-OF-DAY-WS.
*  12-S********************                                                  **
**    Operand TIME-OF-DAY is not declared
cob32: error(s) in compilation: TOD-TEST.cbl

$> cob -C OSVS          TOD-TEST.cbl  <-- Succeeds
$> cob -C DOSVS         TOD-TEST.cbl  <-- Succeeds
$> cob -C DIALECT=OSVS  TOD-TEST.cbl  <-- Succeeds
$> cob -C DIALECT=DOSVS TOD-TEST.cbl  <-- Succeeds

To make it work with Visual COBOL, specify the OSVS compiler directive, or within a Visual COBOL for Eclipse project, under Properties > Micro Focus > Project Settings > COBOL, in the drop-down named "Language dialect", select "OS/VS COBOL".