Which of the following statements is false? Data is lost when a local variable "goes out of scope." Data maintained in files is often called transient data. Storage of data variables and arrays is temporary. Files are used for long-term retention of large amounts of data.

The false statement is "Data maintained in files is often called transient data".

Explanation:

In computer programming, transient data is a temporary storage to hold the value which is created within an application session. The transient data will be discarded at the end of the program. The transient data will be reset to its default value when running the program again. In contrast, file is known as a persistent storage which will still hold data even after end of a program. This is the reason the statement "Data maintained in files is often called transient data" is contradictory and therefore is considered a false statement.