Reading the self-defining section for variable-length data items

If the length of each item in a data section varies, the self-defining section indicates the value 0 in the halfword that follows the fullword offset. The length of each variable-length data item is indicated by two bytes that precede each data item.

Begin program-specific programming interface information.The relationship between the contents of the self-defining section “pointers” and the items in a data section for variable-length data items is shown in the following figure.
Figure 1. Relationship between self-defining section and data sections for variable-length data items
Begin figure description. A map of the relationship between the self-defining section and the data sections for variable-length data items. Arrows represent the pointers. End figure description.
End program-specific programming interface information.