Illustration of Subtract verb:
(a) SUBTRACT A FROM B.
This illustration means that the value of A will be subtracted from the value of B and the subtracted result will be stored in B. The decimal point alignment will be completed automatically.
(b) SUBTRACT A, B FROM C.
This one represents that the value of B and A will be added and the resultant sum will be subtracted from the value of C. After subtraction, the concluding result will be stored in C. The older value of C will be lost.
(c) SUBTRACT A, B FROM C GIVING D.
This represents that the summation of the value of A & B will be subtracted from the value of C and the last result will be stored in D. The older value of D will be lost while in this situation C retains the older value.
(d) SUBTRACT 15 FROM A B.
At this point the number 15 will be subtracted from the values of A & B. The A & B will obtain these new values. As in the situation of the ADD statement, here also the last-named operand should not be a literal as the last result will be stored there. If the GIVING option is used, then identifier-3, identifier-4 etc. can also be the numeric literals. For illustration, SUBTRACT A B FROM 50 GIVING C.