The Second and Third Columns

Now comes the tricky part. The second and third columns contain separate lists of assets for each borrower. They form a nested table or a table within a table:

Data ID 501 Data ID 503 Data ID 504
(1) Borrower 1

(1,1) Asset 1

(1,2) Asset 2

(1,3) Asset 3

(1,4) Asset 4

(1,5) Asset 5

(1,1) Amount 1

(1,2) Amount 2

(1,3) Amount 3

(1,4) Amount 4

(1,5) Amount 5
(2) Borrower 2

(2,1) Asset 1

(2,2) Asset 2

(2,3) Asset 3

(2,4) Asset 4

(2,5) Asset 5

(2,1) Amount 1

(2,2) Amount 2

(2,3) Amount 3

(2,4) Amount 4

(2,5) Amount 5
(3) Borrower 3

(3,1) Asset 1

(3,2) Asset 2

(3,3) Asset 3

(3,4) Asset 4

(3,5) Asset 5

(3,1) Amount 1

(3,2) Amount 2

(3,3) Amount 3

(3,4) Amount 4

(3,5) Amount 5
(4) Borrower 4

(4,1) Asset 1

(4,2) Asset 2

(4,3) Asset 3

(4,4) Asset 4

(4,5) Asset 5

(4,1) Amount 1

(4,2) Amount 2

(4,3) Amount 3

(4,4) Amount 4

(4,5) Amount 5

In the table above, the array in data ID 501 corresponds to the first column in the form. In front of each element is the index number. Data ID 503 contains four separate lists of assets, one for each borrower. Each element in the list needs two indexes. The first index tells which borrower the list is for (1, 2, 3, or 4). The second index is the position of the element in that list.

If you look at data ID 503 in the row for Borrower 3 above, the first index for each asset is 3. This corresponds to the index for Borrower 3 and identifies the element as belonging to the list for Borrower 3. Asset 1 has a second index of 1, indicating that it is the first item in list 3. Asset 2 has a second index of 2. In the row for Borrower 4, the first index for Asset 1 is 4, identifying it as an element in list 4. Its second index is 1, identifying it as the first item in the list.

Data ID 504 works the same way. The lists in Data ID 503 and 504 are com­pletely parallel to each other. All indexes correspond.

Data arrays with two indexes are called second-dimension arrays or two-dimensional arrays. As you can see from the above, a second-dimension array really contains a set of arrays. Each array in a second-dimension array is indexed to an element in a first-dimension array. In our example, each array in data ID 503 and 504 is indexed to a borrower in data ID 501.

To define two-dimensional arrays

1. Select all the data fields for the data ID that contains the array.

2. Click on the Field tab.

3. Click the in the Data Dimension value field twice to enter a 2. Two index fields will appear—Data Index 1 and Data Index 2. 1 will appear as the default index for each:

4. Do the following to enter the first data index for the fields in each “list” in the array:

  • Select all the fields in the list group. Then select the Field tab.

  • Click on the Data Index 1 value field and enter the first index. The first list should have an in­dex of 1, the second, an index of 2, etc.

The list associated with Borrower 1 would have an index of 1 as shown above. The one asso­ciated with Borrower 2 would have an index of 2, etc.

5. Do the following to enter the second data index for each field:

  • Select the field and click on the Field tab.

  • Click on the Data Index 2 value field and enter the second index. The first item in each list should have an index of 1, the second, an index of 2, etc.:

The above example shows the indexes for item 4 in the list associated with Borrower 1.

When fields are defined as second-dimension arrays, both data indexes will be displayed after the data ID in the Data View tree:

Hint:

If you have more than one column of parallel fields, you can define both together. Select both columns and select the data dimension. Then select the first set of lists (the ones corresponding to Borrower 1, for example) and enter the first index. Then select each parallel row and enter the second.