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.