Storage class

In computer programming, the storage class assigned to a variable is a classification that denotes its storage location in memory (or in a register) in addition to its scope, lifetime, and visibility. A variable's storage class is independent of its type or value.

Storage classes

PL/I in about 1964, was one of the earliest languages to introduce the term storage class.^[1] The 1964 NPL Technical Report (NPL was the original name of PL/I) defines three storage classes:^[2] Later on, PL/I has six storage classes: STATIC INTERNAL, STATIC EXTERNAL, AUTOMATIC, CONTROLLED INTERNAL, CONTROLLED EXTERNAL, and BASED. Static variables are, at least as seen by the programmer, allocated once. They commonly keep their value, even when they go out of scope. PL/I uses the INTERNAL and EXTERNAL attributes to distinguish those with block scope and global scope, respectively. Automatic variables are allocated on block entry, and deallocated on block exit. With recursion, there can be more than one copy of a variable allocated at the same time. The controlled storage class gives the program, or programmer, full control over when to allocate and deallocate a variable. Based variables occupy no storage, they are addressed through a pointer, which is set by allocating storage for the variable, or py setting it to the address of existing data. The C language added the REGISTER storage class to indicate that the datum is stored in one of the computer’s registers, if possible. Different programming languages allow for some or all of these storage classes, sometimes using different names.

Fortran

Fortran^[3] is usually considered the first of the high level programming languages, first implemented in about 1957. Being first, the idea of storage class wasn't yet well understood. In the beginning, Fortran only offered static storage. Until SUBROUTINE and FUNCTION were added in Fortran II, there were no separate procedures, such that there was only one scope.

Fortran II in 1958 added SUBROUTINE and FUNCTION, and also COMMON. While still allowing only for static allocation, COMMON allowed for global scope. Variables not named in COMMON have procedure scope.

Fortran 77 in about 1978 was the first major upgrade to Fortran. It either straightened up or confused the Fortran storage classes. Since Fortran still didn't allow recursion, there was no need for automatic allocation. Fortran 77 added the. SAVE statement to explicitly request static storage. That left uncertainty to the storage class of other variables.

Fortran 90 finally allowed for recursion, and so need to straighten up storage classes. A routine with the RECURSIVE attribute necessarily uses automatic storage for all variables not in a SAVE statement, or in COMMON. Fortran 90 also adds the ALLOCATABLE attribute allowing for full control over allocation.

PL/I

PL/I was designed in the early 1960's, including features from ALGOL, FORTRAN, and COBOL. It was developed when the idea of storage class was finally being understood. Also, the PL/I language was mostly defined before the first compiler was written. They had a chance to do things in the more obvious way, without worry about complications of implementation. That also allowed for features that were difficult to implement. PL/I provides the five storage classes STATIC INTERNAL, STATIC EXTERNAL, AUTOMATIC, CONTROLLED INTERNAL, and CONTROLLED EXTERNAL. Variables with the CONTROLLED attribute are allocated with the ALLOCATE and deallocated with the FREE statement. There are some complications with internal procedures (nested within other procedures) and recursion, and especially with ENTRY variables (somewhat equivalent to C's function pointers).

C

Developed in the 1970's, by people who knew about both Fortan and PL/I, C^[4] had a chance to fix some earlier mistakes. But mostly, C is a much simpler language than PL/I, and similar to Fortran 77 in complexity. In C, all functions allow for recursion. While C does have the auto attribute, it is the default if no other attribute is given. The static attribute gives variables the static internal attribute, when declared inside functions. Variables declared outside any function are global and statically allocated. C does not supply an attribute equivalent to PL/I's CONTROLLED, but instead uses pointers and library functions to give equivalent functionality.

COBOL

References

^ American National Standard Programming Language PL/I. American National Standards Institute. 1976. p. 52.
^ NPL Technical Report (PDF). IBM Corporation. December 1964. pp. 57–59. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
^ Backus, John (October–December 1998). "The History of Fortran I, II, and III" (PDF). IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 20 (4): 68–78. doi:10.1109/85.728232. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2020. [1][2]
^ Kernighan, Brian W.; Ritchie, Dennis M. (February 1978). The C Programming Language (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-110163-0.

[1] American National Standard Programming Language PL/I. American National Standards Institute. 1976. p. 52.

[2] NPL Technical Report (PDF). IBM Corporation. December 1964. pp. 57–59. Retrieved March 24, 2025.

[history-fortran-i-ii-333-3] Backus, John (October–December 1998). "The History of Fortran I, II, and III" (PDF). IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 20 (4): 68–78. doi:10.1109/85.728232. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2020. [1][2]

[k&r1e-4] Kernighan, Brian W.; Ritchie, Dennis M. (February 1978). The C Programming Language (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-110163-0.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]