Getting information about data elements

Use the Data Elements view to display information about the data elements in a COBOL or PL/I program and included copybooks and include files.

Before you begin

Associate a property group with the program file. The editor uses the SYSLIB property group setting to locate copybook and include files. For more information about associating a property group with a program file, see Associating and overriding property groups.

About this task

The data element table is created by parsing a program and its copybooks or include files. Parsing includes real-time syntax checking of the program, and included and found copybooks and include files. The data element table can contain the following information about each data item.

Data item name
Declared level
Top-level structure name
Declaration data
Declaration location
Declaration line number
Number of references to the data item
Length of the data item
Offset of the data item
Item type
Initial value
Full declaration
Export data element

If the data element table is open and you make another request to open it, the new contents replace the current data in the view.

Restriction: The Data Elements view is subject to the following restrictions and limitations:

It cannot be opened from a copybook or include file.
Display of data item length and offset is limited. For more information about displaying the length and offset of data items, see:
- Length and offset of data items (z Systems® LPEX Editor)
- Length and offset of data items (COBOL Editor)
- Length and offset of data items (PL/I Editor)
Data elements defined in user-defined functions are not supported.

Procedure

In the editor, right-click and click Show In > Data Elements.
When you double-click a row in the table, the corresponding data in the source file is highlighted in the editor.
Right-click in a row to open the menu. From the menu, you can do the following actions:
- Open Declaration highlights the data item declaration in the editor.
- Occurrences in Compilation Unit opens a hierarchy view of the program that shows the selected data element in the hierarchy.
To limit the data that is shown by name, type a name pattern in the Type search text to filter by Name field. You can use the * and ? wildcard characters in the filter string. Separate multiple filter strings with commas.
To add or remove columns in the table, select Columns from the toolbar menu.
The Name column is always displayed. The Name column is sorted alphabetically. It can be sorted in ascending or descending order by using the sort icon on the column name field. You can change the size of a column by dragging the column header. Columns can also be dragged from one location into another.
To filter data in the data element table, select Filters from the toolbar menu and then choose one of these options:
- Hide unnamed items filters out data items that are not named. This filter is on by default.
- Hide program labels filters out program labels.
- Hide implicit declarations filters out data items that are implicitly defined. This filter is on by default.
- Hide all items except program labels filters out all data items except program labels (such as paragraphs and certain section names).
You can choose multiple filters, but you must turn them on and off individually.
To set the filters and columns to the default settings, select Reset View from the toolbar menu.
To refresh the data element table automatically whenever the table is parsed successfully in the editor, select Refresh Automatically from the toolbar menu.
If this option is disabled, you can refresh the table manually by using the refresh icon .