Difference between Pass-by-reference and Pass-by-content

         

	Passl By Reference	Pass By Content
1	CALL ‘sub1’ USING BY REFERENCE WS-VAR1	CALL ‘sub1’ USING BY CONTENT WS-VAR1 (BY CONTENT keyword is needed)
2	It is default in COBOL. BY REFERENCE is not needed.	BY CONTENT key word is mandatory to pass an element by value.
3	Address of WS-VAR1 is passed	Value of WS-VAR1 is passed
4	The sub-program modifications on the passed elements are visible in the main program.	The sub-program modifications on the passed elements are local to that sub-program and not visible in the main program.