Group items and data items in PL/I

Group items in a PL/I include file map to Java™ classes. Data items map to different Java structures, depending on the level of the data item and the level at which they are defined.

For example, top-level PL/I data items are handled differently to lower-level data items, depending on the level at which they are defined in the include file.

Group items

Each group item in the PL/I include file maps to a Java class in the XOM. If the group item has a parent in the PL/I include file, an attribute is added into the parent XOM class. For example, you might have the following group items:

dcl 01 Parent,
       05 Child,
          10 name char(20);

These group items map to the following Java XOM entries:

Two classes, Parent and Child, are generated.
The Parent class has one attribute named Child, of type Child.

Data items

Data items that have a parent in a PL/I include file are mapped to an attribute in the parent Java class in the XOM. For example, you might have a data item named Child:

dcl 01 Parent,
       05 Child char(20);

These data items map to the following Java XOM entries:

One class, Parent, is created for the group item.
The data item maps to the Child attribute, which is added to the Parent class with an attribute type of java.lang.String.