When host variables are declared in a group item, an SQL statement which needs to refer to each of these variables in turn can be abbreviated by referring instead to the group-name. If you need to associate indicator variables with these host variables, define a table of indicator variables with as many instances as there are host variables, and reference this table (the item with the OCCURS clause, not a group item containing it).
For example, suppose you have defined some host variables as follows:
01 host-structure.
03 sumh pic s9(9) comp-5.
03 avgh pic s9(9) comp-5.
03 minh pic s9(9) comp-5.
03 maxh pic s9(9) comp-5.
03 varchar.
49 varchar-l pic s9(4) comp.
49 varchar-d pic x(1000).
01 indicator-table.
03 indic pic s9(4) comp-5 occurs 4.
01 redefines indicator-table.
03 indic1 pic s9(4) comp-5.
03 indic2 pic s9(4) comp-5.
03 indic3 pic s9(4) comp-5.
03 indic4 pic s9(4) comp-5.
In such an example, the procedural statement:
exec sql fetch s3 into :host-structure:indic end-exec
is equivalent to:
exec sql fetch s3 into :sumh:indic1, :avgh:indic2, :minh:indic3, :maxh:indic4, :varchar end-exec
The four declared indicator variables are allocated to the first four host variables. If five or more had been declared, all five host variables would have an associated indicator variable.
The table of indicator variables is redefined only to show the equivalent SQL statement (subscripting is not allowed in SQL statements). The redefinition can be omitted and the COBOL program can refer to the indicator variables using subscripting, if desired.