Contains the procedural instructions necessary for

• reading input data
• processing
• creating out put file and storing output information

The Procedure Division is divided into modules called paragraphs. Each paragraph (or Module) consists of Statements(Sentences).

A Statement is an instruction that ends with a period. Statements are executed in sequence in a paragraph unless a logical control struct such as "if", "perform", "go to" change the order of operation.

Paragraph names conform to the COBOL naming rules, except the following 123. :

100-MAIN-PARA.
    STATEMENT
    ...
    ...
200-PROC-MODULE.
    STATEMENT
    ...
    ...
123.
    STATEMENT
    ...
    ...

Major COBOL Statements in PROCEDURE DIVISION

• OPEN: prepares files for processing
• READ: bring a Single Record into storage (FILE-NAME)
• WRITE: "A Record"
• CLOSE: deactivate files
• STOP RUN: terminates processing
• MOVE
• PERFORM
• IF
• COMPUTE
• ...