Handling tables
About this task
A table is a collection of data items that have the same description, such as account totals or monthly averages. A table consists of a table name and subordinate items called table elements. A table is the COBOL equivalent of an array.
In
the example above, SAMPLE-TABLE-ONE
is the group
item that contains the table. TABLE-COLUMN
names
the table element of a one-dimensional table that occurs three times.
Rather than
defining repetitious items as separate, consecutive entries in the DATA
DIVISION
, you use the OCCURS
clause in the DATA
DIVISION
entry to define a table. This practice has these
advantages:
- The code clearly shows the unity of the items (the table elements).
- You can use subscripts and indexes to refer to the table elements.
- You can easily repeat data items.
Tables are important for increasing the speed of a program, especially a program that looks up records.