Data Division Structure
The Data Division must begin with the words DATA DIVISION, followed by a period and a space.
The
Data Division is divided into four sections:
- File Section
- Describes externally stored data (including sort-merge files).
- Working-Storage Section
- Describes internal data.
- Local-Storage Section
- Describes internal data that is allocated on a per-invocation basis.
- Linkage Section
- Describes data made available by another program. It appears in the called program and describes data items that are provided by the calling program and are referred to by the called program. The called program can be a nested program. For more information on nested programs, see the IBM® Rational® Development Studio for i: ILE COBOL Programmer's Guide.
Each section has a specific logical function within a COBOL source program, and each may be omitted from the source program when that logical function is not needed. If included, the sections must be written in the order shown.
