The EXPAND statement lengthens control sections or named common areas by a specified number of bytes. The syntax of the EXPAND statement is:

EXPAND          sectionname(length[,classname])
                        [,sectionname(length[,classname])].

sectionname

Symbolic name of a common area or control section whose length is increased.

length

The decimal number of bytes to be added to the length of the section. The length of the section can be expanded to reach the maximum text size of a program object or load module. The maximum text size of a program object is 1 GB; the maximum text size of a load module is 16 MB. Binary zeros are used to initialize an expanded control section.

classname

The name of the text class to be expanded. Classname is not valid when COMPAT=LKED or COMPAT=PM1. Classname defaults to B_TEXT if it is not specified.

A message indicates the number of bytes added to the control section and the offset, relative to the start of the control section, where the expansion begins. The effective length of the expansion is given in hexadecimal and can be greater than the specified length if, after the specified expansion, padding bytes must be added for alignment of the next control section or named common area.

Placement: An EXPAND statement can be placed before, between, or after other control statements or object modules. However, the statement must follow the module containing the control section or named common area to which it refers. If the control section or named common area is entered as the result of an INCLUDE statement, the EXPAND statement can appear anywhere between the INCLUDE and NAME statements.