If a table is small, you can set the value of each item individually by using a VALUE clause.
Use the following technique, which is shown in the example code below:
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*** E R R O R F L A G T A B L E ***
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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 references
REDEFINES clause (Enterprise COBOL Language Reference)
OCCURS clause (Enterprise COBOL Language Reference)