RULES FOR INDEXED TABLES:

The rules of indexing a table with an INDEXED phrase are as shown below:

(1) If indexing is completed for any one level of a table, then indexing should be used for all levels. Therefore it will be an error if in the above the INDEXED phrase is used only for FACULTY and not for the DEPARTMENT and YEAR.

(2) The Index names cannot be used in combination with the subscripts. And hence, a reference as YEAR (F1, S2, S3) will be treated as an error as F1 is an index name but S2 and S3 are data names. Though, index names can be used in a combination with numeric positive integral literals. Therefore YEAR (F1, 2, 3) is valid as F1 is an index name, while 2 and 3 are numeric integral literals.

(3) Indexes are valid only for the tables where they have been identified. The Indexes for one table cannot be used for the other table. Therefore F1, D1 and Y1, being indexes for the table ENROLL-TABLE, cannot be used for other tables in similar program.

(4) The index names should be exclusive. The same index name should not be used for various levels of a table.

(5) The indexes should not appear anywhere in the DATA DIVISION except in the INDEXED phrase of the OCCURS clause. This means that the index names must be implicitly defined and must not be defined explicitly.

(6) The Indexes can be manipulated only by the SEARCH, SET and PERFORM statements. The value of an index is frequently known as the occurrence number. The internal presentation of the occurrence number is system dependent.

(7) An index can be coded plus or minus an integer literal for the relative addressing of the table elements. For illustration, YEAR (F1+1, D1-2, Y1-1) is valid. If F1, D1 and suppose that the value 1,3 and 4 respectively then this will refer to the third YEAR of the first DEPARTMENT of the second FACULTY.

(8) There can be more than one index for each level. For illustration, the ENROLL-TABLE can also be defined as