Local Data Types and Data Objects in a Program 

With predefined data types, you have learned about the basic elements that you need in order to create local data types and data objects in a program. The statement for defining your own local data types in a program is TYPES. The statement for declaring or creating data objects is DATA. The syntax of both statements is virtually identical. This reflects the fact that each data type can be defined either independently or linked to a data object. Like predefined data types, independently created data types can be used in all statements with the addition TYPE, in particular for defining further complex data types or creating data objects of this type. Data objects of this kind are instances of data types, in the same way that objects are instances of classes (object types).