Working Storage

Definitions

1. A section of a COBOL program's DATA DIVISION where variables that persist for the life of the program are declared. Unlike LOCAL-STORAGE (per-invocation), WORKING-STORAGE values survive between calls.

   In plain English: The part of a COBOL program where you put variables that need to stick around for the whole time the program runs.

   Example: "Declare the accumulator in WORKING-STORAGE so it retains its value between paragraph calls."

Related Terms

• Space Complexity
• Allocatable
• Buffer
• Cache
• Chunk
• Common Block
• Copybook
• EBCDIC
• JCL
• Brownfield