diff --git a/gcc/cobol/genapi.cc b/gcc/cobol/genapi.cc
index 1e9b821981aeb9d2048aef5fcb10bf7dffad156d..dbe02996eab2711fd4bb91db85f15d3b5b62a06f 100644
--- a/gcc/cobol/genapi.cc
+++ b/gcc/cobol/genapi.cc
@@ -4690,6 +4690,7 @@ parser_assign( size_t nC, cbl_num_result_t *C,
                cbl_label_t *compute_error)
   {
   Analyze();
+  RETURN_IF_PARSE_ONLY;
   // There might, or might not, already be error and/or not_error labels:
   set_up_arith_error_label(on_error);
   set_up_arith_error_label(not_error);