METHOD FOR DISPLAYING A DATA STRUCTURE OF A PROGRAM

A program data structure is defined by a data field definition having a plurality of data field definition blocks, the data field definition blocks comprising a plurality of data items, the data items including data item names, data item hierarchy data and data item length data. A user uses a mouse pointer and clicks it on a data item in a program to select the data item. The method of the present invention calculates offset data for selected data items. When there is a data item that is used for re-definition, the offset for a data item to be re-defined is added to the offset data to provide an offset value. The data items are arranged in order according to their hierarchical relationship, and data items that have the same offset are displayed as a single line. A numeral for an offset is added to the line, and a broken line is used to separate lines of data items.