ABL provides two structure types to support record fetches. One structure type, the index, you define in the schema of your database. The other structure type, a results list, is temporary; the AVM builds it at runtime. The results list associated with a DO, REPEAT, or OPEN QUERY statement with the PRESELECT option is sometimes called a preselect list.

In addition, there are two data types, ROWID and RECID, that allow you to retrieve a pointer to a fetched record. You can use this pointer to:

• Position to and retrieve a record from a results list
• Refetch a record and modify its lock status
• Store as a future record reference

In addition to the examples in this section, you can learn more about ROWID in Develop ABL Applications.