ILE COBOL Language Reference

ASCENDING/DESCENDING KEY Phrase Coding Example

The following example illustrates the specification of ASCENDING KEY data items:

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01  TABLE-RECORD.
  05  EMPLOYEE-TABLE OCCURS 100 TIMES
      ASCENDING KEY IS WAGE-RATE EMPLOYEE-NO
      INDEXED BY A,  B.
    10  EMPLOYEE-NAME                         PIC X(20).
    10  EMPLOYEE-NO                           PIC 9(6).
    10  WAGE-RATE                             PIC 9999V99.
    10  WEEK-RECORD OCCURS 52 TIMES
        ASCENDING KEY IS WEEK-NO INDEXED BY C.
      15  WEEK-NO                             PIC 99.
      15  AUTHORIZED-ABSENCES                 PIC  9.
      15  UNAUTHORIZED-ABSENCES               PIC  9.
      15  LATE-ARRIVALS                       PIC  9.

The keys for EMPLOYEE-TABLE are subordinate to that entry, while the key for WEEK-RECORD is subordinate to that subordinate entry.

In the preceding example, records in EMPLOYEE-TABLE must be arranged in ascending order of WAGE-RATE, and in ascending order of EMPLOYEE-NO within WAGE-RATE. Records in WEEK-RECORD must be arranged in ascending order of WEEK-NO. If they are not, results of any SEARCH ALL statement will be unpredictable.


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