The Cobol parser assumes that every separator must be followed by a blank. If you index a variable with a separator that is not followed by a blank, MY-VARIABLE(1,1), the parser may treat (1,1) as a numeric literal, especially when the program was compiled with the DECIMAL POINT IS COMMA option. To index a variable, use the format MY-VARIABLE(1, 1)or MY-VARIABLE(1 1).