A FILE declaration associates a file identifier with a file and assigns values to the file attributes of the file.

<file declaration>

──┬──────────┬─ FILE ──────────────────────────────────────────────────►
  └─ DIRECT ─┘
  ┌◄────────────────────────── , ─────────────────────────┐
►─┴─<identifier>─┬──────────────────────────────────────┬─┴────────────┤
                 └─ ( ──<attribute specifications>── ) ─┘