WORKING-STORAGE SECTION

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION is one of the important sections under the DATA DIVISION because it defines all the variables and record structures that are required for the processing of data in the program.

It defines the variables with their type and size and initializes them with values if needed for processing.

Notes -

  • The variables are defined for internal usage in the program and can't be accessed outside.
  • Memory is allocated to all WORKING-STORAGE SECTION variables when the program execution starts and gets deallocated when the program execution ends.
  • It also defines the data record structures that are part of the file definition but are still used to perform file operations.

Syntax -

[DATA DIVISION.]
[WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.]
	[record-layout-definition.]
	[variables-declaration.]

Examples -

Scenario1 - Declaring a variable.

 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
 01 WS-VAR           PIC 9(03).

Scenario2 - Declaring a variable with initialized.

 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
 01 WS-VAR           PIC 9(03) VALUE 128.

Scenario3 - Declaring a stuent file record structure as a single variable.

 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
 01 WS-STD-REC 			 PIC X(80).

Scenario4 - Declaring a stuent file record structure with elementary variables.

 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
 01 WS-STD-REC.
    05 WS-STD-NO 			PIC 9(03).
	05 WS-STD-NAME    		PIC X(25).
	05 WS-STD-CLASS   		PIC X(05).
	05 WS-STD-TOTAL-MARKS   PIC 9(03).
	05 FILLER				PIC X(44).

Scenario5 - Declaring a group variable and elementary variable.

 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
* Group variable | Data item                                       
 01 WS-GROUP.                                                     
* Elementary Variable | Data item                                
    05 WS-ELEM1      PIC 9(03).                               
    05 WS-ELEM2      PIC 9(03).

Scenario6 - Declaring a conditional variable.

 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
* Condition Variable                                             
 01 WS-GENDER      PIC X(01).                               
    88 WS-MALE     VALUE "M".                               
    88 WS-FEMALE   VALUE "F".