Storage control

All variables require storage. The attributes specified for a variable describe the amount of storage required and how it is interpreted.

In the following example, a reference to X is a reference to a piece of storage that contains a value to be interpreted as fixed-point binary.

  dcl X fixed binary(31,0) automatic;

Because X is automatic, the storage for it is allocated when its declaring block is activated, and the storage remains allocated until the block is deactivated.