HP 3000 Manuals

COBOL/HP-UX Language Reference for the Series 700 and 800

Data Division 

Overall Approach 

The Data Division describes the data that the object program is to accept
as input, to manipulate, to create, or to produce as output.

Physical and Logical Aspects of Data Description 

Data Division Organization.   

The Data Division is subdivided into sections.  These are the File,
Working-Storage, Linkage, Communication and Report , Screen, and 
Local-Storage (MF) sections.

The File Section defines the structure of data files.  Each file is
defined by a file description entry and one or more record descriptions.
Record descriptions are written immediately following the file
description entry.

The Working-Storage Section describes records and noncontiguous data
items which are not part of external data files but are developed and
processed internally.  It also describes data items whose values are
assigned in the source program and do not change during the execution of
the object program.

The Linkage Section appears in the called program and describes data
items that are to be referred to by the calling and the called program.
Its structure is the same as the Working-Storage Section.

The Communication Section describes the data item in the source program
that will serve as the interface between the Message Control System (MCS)
and the program.  The Report Section contains one or more report
description entries (RD entries), each of which forms the complete
description of a report.
________________________________________________________________________
|(MF)                                                                  |
|The Screen Section defines the attributes of the screens.  It offers  |
|the facility to specify the exact location of fields when they are    |
|displayed on the screen as well as to control certain console features|
|during an ACCEPT or DISPLAY operation.                                |
|                                                                      |
|The Local-Storage Section identifies a program as eligible for        |
|recursion.  A separate copy of the Local-Storage Section is created   |
|each time the program is CALLed and exists only during the lifetime of|
|that CALL.                                                            |
________________________________________________________________________

            

General Format 

The following gives the general format of the sections in the Data
Division, and defines the order of their presentation in the source
program.


            

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation