COBCH1140 VALUE in FILE or LINKAGE SECTION - only used with INITIALIZE statement

This clause will be ignored until you use the VALUE clause as part of an INITIALIZE statement; at which point, the value is assigned to the item.

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linkage section.
01 lnk-item1 pic x(5) value "hello".
procedure division using lnk-item1.
display lnk-item1.                  *> displays value passed in to program
initialize lnk-item1 to value.
display lnk-item1.                  *> displays "hello"