VALUES ARE can be used with Format 1. 
The VALUE clause may not be used with external floating-point data items. The VALUE clause may be used with external floating-point data items.
The VALUE clause may be used for an internal floating-point data item, that is an item defined with USAGE COMP-1 or USAGE COMP-2. In this case literal-1 must either be a floating-point literal, the figurative constant ZERO, or a numeric literal representing the value zero. Format 2 may be used to define a conditional-variable associated with an internal floating-point data item, but not an external floating-point data item. In this case, literal-2 and literal-3 must be floating-point literals, the figurative constant ZERO, or numeric literals representing the value zero. Format 2 may be used to define a condition-variable associated with an external floating-point data item.
Literal-4 must not be equal to any literal-2, and in any literal-2 THROUGH literal-3 pair, literal-4 cannot be greater than or equal to literal-2 and less than or equal to literal-3. All identifiers must have been defined before the declaration of the level 78 item. If either identifier-1 or identifier-3 (LENGTH parameters) is a group item, the definition of that group must have been completed before the level 78 declaration, by the appearance of another data item at the same or lower level number. In Format 4 (level 78) the VALUE clause may be omitted if the item is specified in an ENUM definition. A data description entry that contains the VALUE clause must contain an OCCURS clause or be subordinate to a data description entry that contains an OCCURS clause. Subscript-1 and subscript-2 must be integer numeric literals. In one FROM phrase, there must be one subscript-1 specified for each OCCURS clause for the subject of the entry or superordinate to that entry, specified in the same order as a subscripted reference to the subject of the entry would be specified. Each instance of subscript-1 must not exceed the maximum number of occurrences specified in the OCCURS clause associated with that instance. If the TO phrase is specified, there must be one subscript-2 specified for each OCCURS clause for the subject of the entry or superordinate to that entry, specified in the same order as a subscripted reference to the subject of the entry would be specified. Each instance of subscript-2 must not exceed the maximum number of occurrences specified in the OCCURS clause associated with that instance. The specification of subscript-2 in one TO phrase must be such that the table element associated with subscript-2 is the same occurrence or a successive occurrence of the table element associated with the corresponding subscript-1. If the item is numeric edited, the value can be a numeric literal or a nonnumeric literal. If the value is a numeric literal, the value contained in the item will be the same as if the numeric literal were moved to the numeric edited item.
and Local-Storage Section,
the VALUE clause can be used to specify the initial value of a data item, in which case the clause causes the item to assume the specified value at the time the runtime element is placed into its initial state. If the VALUE clause is not used in an item's description, the initial value of that data item is undefined.
and Local-Storage Section,
the VALUE clause can be used in data item entries, but it takes effect only when an INITIALIZE statement that applies to the entries is executed.
The figurative constant NULL can be specified in the VALUE clause only if the data item is defined with USAGE POINTER or USAGE PROCEDURE-POINTER. This is the only value you can specify in the VALUE clause for such an item. The effect is to set the pointer in such a way that it is guaranteed not to point to any data item. 
A VALUE clause specified in a data description entry that contains an OCCURS clause, or in an entry that is subordinate to an OCCURS clause, causes every occurrence of the associated data item to be assigned the specified value. If a VALUE clause is specified in a data description entry of a data item which is associated with a variable occurrence data item, the initialization of the data item behaves as if the value of the data item referenced by the DEPENDING ON phrase in the OCCURS clause specified for the variable occurrence data item is set to the maximum number of occurrences as specified by that OCCURS clause. A data item is associated with a variable occurrence data item in any of the following cases: If a VALUE clause is associated with the data item referenced by a DEPENDING ON phrase, that value is considered to be placed in the data item after the variable occurrence data item is initialized.
A data item of class object is initialized to null. The initial value takes effect when VALUE clauses take effect and when storage for the data item is allocated. A data item of class pointer is initialized to null. The initial value takes effect when VALUE clauses take effect and when storage for the data item is allocated. Format 3 can be used only in a constant-name entry. If literal-5 is specified and not followed by an operator, the characteristic of the constant-name is that of literal-5. Otherwise, the characteristic of the constant-name is that of an integer. Any number of arithmetic or logical operators can be used. The result is evaluated using integer arithmetic in strict left to right order. No parentheses can be used. If any intermediate result is less than zero, the final value is undefined. A constant-name may be used in place of integer-1. The logical operations AND and OR act on the binary representation in a bit-wise manner. LENGTH of identifier-1 or identifier-3 is the size of the storage allocated for identifier-1 or identifier-3, respectively. If the identifier is a group item, the length includes all subordinate data items. The value returned by NEXT is the offset at which the next byte of storage occurs after the previous data declaration. (It is not the offset of the start of the next data declaration.) If that data declaration was of a table defined with an OCCURS clause, the value returned by NEXT is the offset at which the next byte of storage occurs after the first element of the table. START of identifier-2 or identifier-4 is the offset at which identifier-2 or identifier-4, respectively, begins. For rules 18 and 19, the offset is defined as follows: Offsets are not portable across different COBOL implementations and no reliance should be placed on particular values outside this compilation unit. A format 2 VALUE clause initializes a table element to the value of literal-6. The table element initialized is identified by subscript-1. Consecutive table elements are initialized, in turn, to the value of successive occurrences of literal-6. Consecutive table elements are referenced by incrementing by 1 the subscript that represents the least inclusive dimension of the table. When any reference to a subscript, prior to incrementing it, is equal to the maximum number of occurrences specified by its corresponding OCCURS clause, that subscript is set to 1 and the subscript for the next most inclusive dimension of the table is incremented by 1. If the TO phrase is specified, all occurrences of literal-6 are reused, in the order specified, as a source during the initialization described in the immediately preceding rule. This repetition is done until the table element identified by subscript-2 is initialized. If the TO phrase is not specified, it is as if the TO phrase were specified with each subscript-2 as the maximum number of occurrences of the table associated with each corresponding subscript-1. If multiple specifications of the FROM phrase reference the same table element, the value defined by the last specified FROM phrase in the VALUE clause is assigned to the table element.
