Example: storage sections

The following example is a recursive program that uses both WORKING-STORAGE and LOCAL-STORAGE.

CBL pgmn(lu)
*********************************
* Recursive Program - Factorials
*********************************
 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
 Program-Id. factorial recursive.
 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
 DATA DIVISION.
 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
 01  numb  pic 9(4)  value 5.
 01  fact  pic 9(8)  value 0.
 LOCAL-STORAGE SECTION.
 01  num  pic 9(4).
 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
     move numb to num.

     if numb = 0
        move 1 to fact
     else
        subtract 1 from numb
        call 'factorial'
        multiply num by fact
     end-if.

     display num '! = ' fact.
     goback.
 End Program factorial.

The program produces the following output:

0000! = 00000001
0001! = 00000001
0002! = 00000002
0003! = 00000006
0004! = 00000024
0005! = 00000120

The following tables show the changing values of the data items in LOCAL-STORAGE and WORKING-STORAGE in the successive recursive calls of the program, and in the ensuing gobacks. During the gobacks, fact progressively accumulates the value of 5! (five factorial).