The COBOL syntax for that looks like PICTURE IS $-999,999.99 which defines a signed money value represented in decimal. If you print that value, it will b

The COBOL syntax for that looks like PICTURE IS $-999,999.99 which defines a signed money value represented in decimal. If you print that value, it will be formatted as requested. There are a few other formatting characters. A "CR" at the end will cause negative numbers to be printed with "CR" (Credit) at the end. A "Z" causes lead zero suppression. "*" causes lead zeros to be replaced with asterisks, for check-writing. Numeric display formatting is an attribute of the data. That concept, and built-in support of money-like values, has been lost in later languages. In Rust you can have implicit Display or Debug functions for types, although it's mostly used for debugging.