Causes the Compiler to treat any token which starts in area A in the Procedure Division as a paragraph or section label, regardless of the preceding tokens.
>>-.---.-.----.---AREACHECK------------------>< +-/-+ +-NO-+
None
| Default: | NOAREACHECK |
| Phase: | Syntax check |
| $SET: | Any |
If AREACHECK is not specified, only tokens which follow a period are treated as possible labels. This directive provides closer compatibility with mainframe error handling, where omitting a period before the label produces a less serious message. We recommend that such erroneous source code is corrected.