Coding Tools
Cobol Case Converter — Convert Text to COBOL-CASE Online Free
Paste a phrase, an existing variable name, or a whole list of names and instantly convert it to COBOL-CASE — all-uppercase words joined with hyphens, like MAX-RETRY-COUNT. camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, kebab-case, and CONSTANT_CASE are generated at the same time.
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What is COBOL-CASE?
COBOL-CASE (sometimes called screaming kebab case or upper hyphen case) is a naming convention where every word in a phrase is written in uppercase and joined together with hyphens, like CUSTOMER-ACCOUNT-BALANCE or MAX-RETRY-COUNT. It takes its name from COBOL, the business-oriented programming language first developed in 1959, which has historically used all-caps, hyphen-separated identifiers for variables, paragraph names, and data items.
You'll still find COBOL-CASE in active use today in COBOL programs running on mainframes at banks, insurers, and government agencies, in some Lisp-family dialects that favor hyphens over underscores, and occasionally in legacy configuration formats that predate modern underscore-based conventions. This tool also generates camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, kebab-case, and CONSTANT_CASE from the same input, so you can translate a legacy COBOL field name into the convention used by whatever modern language or API you're integrating it with.
How to use the Cobol Case Converter
- Paste your text into the box — a single phrase, an existing variable name, or a list of names (one per line).
- Leave "Treat each line as a separate name" on to convert a list in bulk, or turn it off to treat the whole block as one phrase.
- Your COBOL-CASE result appears instantly in the highlighted box, with a dedicated copy button.
- Scroll down for camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, kebab-case, and CONSTANT_CASE versions of the same input, each with its own copy button.
Examples
| Input | COBOL-CASE | kebab-case |
|---|
| customer account balance | CUSTOMER-ACCOUNT-BALANCE | customer-account-balance |
| order_total_price | ORDER-TOTAL-PRICE | order-total-price |
| maxRetryCount | MAX-RETRY-COUNT | max-retry-count |
| DateOfBirth | DATE-OF-BIRTH | date-of-birth |
Common ways people use this tool
COBOL programsGenerate correctly-formatted data item and paragraph names for COBOL source code.
Legacy mainframe migrationTranslate modern camelCase or snake_case field names back into the COBOL-CASE used by an existing mainframe system.
Lisp-family identifiersProduce hyphen-separated identifiers matching conventions used in some Lisp dialects and configuration languages.
Documentation for legacy systemsKeep field names in technical documentation consistent with how they appear in the original COBOL codebase.
Data mapping & integrationMap a modern API's camelCase or snake_case fields to the COBOL-CASE names used by a legacy backend system.
Mainframe-to-cloud projectsCross-reference old and new naming conventions when documenting a modernization or migration effort.
Academic & teaching examplesDemonstrate COBOL naming conventions when teaching or writing about the history of programming languages.
Config files using hyphenated capsGenerate names for legacy config formats that expect all-uppercase, hyphen-separated keys.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between COBOL-CASE and CONSTANT_CASE?
Both are all-uppercase conventions, but they use different separators: COBOL-CASE joins words with hyphens (MAX-RETRY-COUNT), while CONSTANT_CASE (SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE) joins them with underscores (MAX_RETRY_COUNT). COBOL-CASE is specific to COBOL and a handful of other languages that use hyphens in identifiers; CONSTANT_CASE is far more common in modern languages.
What's the difference between COBOL-CASE and kebab-case?
Both use hyphens to join words, but COBOL-CASE uppercases every letter (DATE-OF-BIRTH), while kebab-case keeps everything lowercase (date-of-birth). Kebab-case is common in URLs and CSS classes; COBOL-CASE is specific to COBOL source code and similar legacy conventions.
Is COBOL-CASE still used today?
Yes, in the sense that a large amount of COBOL code still runs in production at banks, insurance companies, and government agencies, and that code follows this naming style. It's rarely chosen for new projects outside of COBOL itself, but it remains relevant for maintaining, documenting, or migrating existing systems.
Can I convert a whole list of names at once?
Yes. Paste one name per line and keep "Treat each line as a separate name" turned on — each line is converted independently and the results are shown stacked in the same order.
Can I convert an existing camelCase or snake_case name to COBOL-CASE?
Yes. The tool detects underscores, hyphens, spaces, and existing capital-letter word boundaries in your input, splits it back into individual words, and rebuilds it as COBOL-CASE (or any of the other five formats).
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. All splitting and conversion happens locally in your browser. Nothing you type or paste is sent to a server, logged, or stored anywhere outside your own device.
Does it support languages other than English?
Word-splitting on separators (spaces, underscores, hyphens, capital letters) works the same regardless of language, and accented Latin characters are supported. Non-Latin scripts are passed through but won't be split into separate words the way Latin-alphabet text is.