The Record Layout Editor uses the Data Division of a COBOL program as input for creating a record layout. You can create one or more layouts from each Data Division.
To enable the Record Layout Editor to read the Data Division of a COBOL program, you must first compile the program to produce a debug information (.idy) file that can be read by the Record Layout Editor. The record layouts that you create from the .idy file describe the name, length, and picture of the fields in a data record.