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Every
COBOL program must have the following 4 divisions
in the order in which they are specified below:
1. Identification division
2. Environment Division
3. Data Division
4. Procedure Division
In the Identification division the details about the
author, date of writing the program etc. will be specified.
In the Environment division, the details about the
computer environment under which the program was written
and compiled etc will be notified. In the Data division,
the variables that are used by the program will be
defined and it is an important division for the program.
In the procedure division, all the programming statements
(Executable Cobol statements) will be written and
it is the most important division. Under the divisions
there are various sections intended for specific purposes.
To name a few, working-storage section and File section
come under Data division. Their purpose will be to
allocate memory space for the variables and to notify
the files that are to be used with the program. A
statement of a COBOL program can be written in one
or more coding lines. To continue in the next line
one has to use a hyphen (-) in column 7.
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