Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 Update 1 for Eclipse (UNIX) > Programming > Compatibility > Compatibility with RM/COBOL > Compatibility with XML Extensions > Importing and Exporting Ambiguous Data-names

Importing and Exporting Ambiguous Data-names

In RM/COBOL, if you attempt to export an ambiguous data-item to a model file, an error is produced. If you attempt to import to an ambiguous data-item, the data is placed in the first occurrence of the named data-item.

In this COBOL system, if you attempt to export an ambiguous data-item to a model file, a warning message is produced and the first occurrence of the named data-item is exported. Similarly, If you attempt to import to an ambiguous data-item, a warning message is displayed and the data is placed in the first occurrence of the named data-item.

Example:

01 Group01.
	02 GroupA.
	  03 NumItem	 PIC s9(5).
	  03 StrItem	 PIC X(5).
        02 GroupB.
          03 NumItem  PIC s9(5).
          03 StrItem  PIC X(5).

--------------------------------
<StrItem> ABCDE </StrItem>   *> this produces a warning and updates StrItem in GroupA

<GroupB><StrItem> ABCDE </StrItem></GroupB>  *> this updates StrItem in GroupB