2. Identifier-2 shall reference a data item whose usage is index or a data item that is an integer. Identifier-2 shall not be subscripted by the first or only index-name specified in the INDEXED phrase in the OCCURS clause specified in the data description entry for identifier-1.

3. Condition-1 may be any conditional expression.

4. The OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1 shall contain the KEY phrase.

5. Data-name-1 and all repetitions of data-name-2 may be qualified.

6. All referenced condition-names shall be defined as having only a single value and shall be subscripted by the first index-name associated with identifier-1, along with any subscripts required to uniquely identify the condition-name. The data-name associated with each condition-name shall be specified in the KEY phrase in the OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1. The index-name subscript shall not be followed by a '+' or a '–'.

7. Identifier-3, identifier-4, identifiers specified in arithmetic-expression-1, and identifiers specified in arithmetic-expression-2 shall be neither referenced in the KEY phrase of the OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1 nor subscripted by the first index-name associated with identifier-1.

8. When a data-name in the KEY phrase in the OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1 is referenced or when a condition-name associated with a data-name in the KEY phrase in the OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1 is referenced, all preceding data-names in that KEY phrase or their associated condition-names shall also be referenced.

B. If the search operation is unsuccessful according to the general rules that follow, then:

ii. If the AT END phrase is not specified and the exception condition was raised during the execution of the SEARCH statement, control is transferred to the end of the SEARCH statement.

iii. If the AT END phrase is not specified and neither exception condition was raised because the checking for those exception conditions was not enabled, control is transferred to the end of the SEARCH statement.

2. The comparison associated with each WHEN phrase is executed in accordance with the rules specified for conditional expressions.

3. The index to be varied by the search operation is referred to as the search index and it is determined as follows:

B. If the VARYING identifier-2 phrase is specified, the search index is the same as in general rule 3a and the following also applies:

ii. If identifier-2 references an integer data item, that data item is incremented by the value one at the same time as the search index is incremented.

C. If the VARYING index-name-1 phrase is specified, the search index depends on the following:

ii. If index-name-1 is not one of the indexes specified in the INDEXED phrase in the OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1, the search index is the same as in general rule 3a. The index referenced by index-name-1 is incremented by one occurrence number at the same time as the search index is incremented.

4. The search operation is serial, starting from the occurrence number that corresponds to the value of the search index at the beginning of the execution of the SEARCH statement. If, at the start of the execution, the search index contains a value that corresponds to an occurrence number that is negative, zero, or greater than the highest permissible occurrence number for identifier-1, the search operation is unsuccessful, and execution proceeds as indicated in general rule 1b. The number of occurrences of identifier-1, the last of which is permissible, is specified in the OCCURS clause. If, at the start of the execution of the SEARCH statement, the search index contains a value that corresponds to an occurrence number that is not greater than the highest permissible occurrence number for identifier-1, the search operation proceeds by evaluating the conditions in the order they are written. If none of the conditions is satisfied, the search index is incremented by one occurrence number. The process is then repeated using the new index setting unless the new value for the search index corresponds to a table element outside the permissible range of occurrence values, in which case the search operation is unsuccessful and execution proceeds as indicated in general rule 1b. If one of the conditions is satisfied upon its evaluation, the search operation is successful and the execution proceeds as indicated in general rule 1a.

5. At the start of the execution of a SEARCH statement with the ALL phrase specified, the following conditions shall be true:

B. If identifier-1 is subordinate to one or more data description entries that contain an OCCURS clause, the evaluation of the conditions within a WHEN phrase that reference a key data item subordinate to identifier-1 shall result in the same occurrence number for any subscripts associated with a given level of the superordinate tables. That is, the outermost level occurrence numbers shall all be equal, the next level occurrence numbers shall all be equal down to, but not including, the innermost table.

6. If any condition specified in general rule 5 is not satisfied:

ii. the final setting of the search index is undefined and execution proceeds as in general rule 1b.

B. If no such setting of the search index exists, the final setting of the search index is undefined, execution proceeds as in general rule 1b.

7. If both conditions specified in general rule 5 are satisfied and there is more than one setting of the search index for which all conditions in the WHEN phrase can be satisfied, the search operation is successful. The final setting of the search index is equal to one of them, but it is undefined which one.

8. The search index is the index referenced by the first (or only) index-name specified in the INDEXED phrase in the OCCURS clause associated with identifier-1. Any other indexes associated with identifier-1 remain unchanged by the search operation.