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DATA DIVISION

DATA DIVISION overview
This overview describes the structure of the DATA DIVISION for programs, object definitions, factory definitions, and methods.
DATA DIVISION--file description entries
In a COBOL program, the File Description (FD) Entry (or Sort File Description (SD) Entry for sort/merge files) represents the highest level of organization in the FILE SECTION. The order in which the optional clauses follow the FD or SD entry is not important.
DATA DIVISION--data description entry
A data description entry specifies the characteristics of a data item. In the sections that follow, sets of data description entries are called record description entries. The term data description entry refers to data and record description entries.