Fields and Elements

A field refers to the units of data in a file that have the same name. A field belongs to one file, and so a field name is unique to a file. The term "field" may also refer to a unit of data in a specific record. For example, the EMPLOYEE file includes fields like LAST-NAME, CITY, and PAY-RATE.

An element is a name attached to a field and defines the properties of fields, such as data type and size. The element is unique within a product line. You can link more than one field to an element, where each field has a different name.

You can add a field and its element from a list of existing elements or you can define a new field and its element.

For the procedures for defining elements and fields, see Defining Fields in a File.