Initializing each table item individually

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If a table is small, you can set the value of each item individually by using a VALUE clause.

About this task

Use the following technique, which is shown in the example code below:

Procedure

  1. Define a record (such as Error-Flag-Table below) that contains the items that are to be in the table.
  2. Set the initial value of each item in a VALUE clause.
  3. Code a REDEFINES entry to make the record into a table.

Results


***********************************************************
***           E R R O R   F L A G   T A B L E           ***
***********************************************************
 01  Error-Flag-Table                    Value Spaces.
   88 No-Errors                          Value Spaces.
     05 Type-Error                       Pic X.
     05 Shift-Error                      Pic X.
     05 Home-Code-Error                  Pic X.
     05 Work-Code-Error                  Pic X.
     05 Name-Error                       Pic X.
     05 Initials-Error                   Pic X.
     05 Duplicate-Error                  Pic X.
     05 Not-Found-Error                  Pic X.
 01  Filler Redefines Error-Flag-Table.
     05 Error-Flag Occurs 8 Times
          Indexed By Flag-Index          Pic X.

In the example above, the VALUE clause at the 01 level initializes each of the table items to the same value. Each table item could instead be described with its own VALUE clause to initialize that item to a distinct value.

To initialize larger tables, use MOVE, PERFORM, or INITIALIZE statements.

Related tasks  
Initializing a structure (INITIALIZE)  
Assigning values to a variable-length table

Related references  
REDEFINES clause (COBOL for Linux® on x86 Language Reference)  
OCCURS clause (COBOL for Linux on x86 Language Reference)