A repeating relationship occurs when the name of a table is repeated as the subject of a relationship. In general, a repeating relationship should be used when the subject of the relationship wanted is not the object of the last relationship specified.
Example
The following FIND statement uses the common key CUST-ID-KEY to connect the CAI-CUST-REC table with the CAI-DETAIL-REC table and the CAI-ORDERS-REC table in a repeating relationship.
FIND 10 CAI-CUST-REC ROWS
RELATED BY CUST-ID-KEY TO
CAI-DETAIL-REC ROWS
AND CAI-CUST-REC RELATED BY CUST-ID-KEY
TO CAI-ORDERS-REC ROWS
WITH ORD-YR = '87'
The preceding example contains two RELATED BY statements. This repetition indicates that a relationship must exist between more than two tables before a logical row is selected. In the example, the relationship of three tables is established.