To answer this question, we need to understand the purpose and limitations of the INITIALIZE statement in COBOL.
The INITIALIZE statement is used to initialize data items to their default values. It can be used with elementary data items and fixed-length tables, but it cannot be used with variable-length tables that are defined using the OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause.
The OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause allows the size of a table to be determined dynamically at runtime. The size of the table is based on the value of a preceding integer data item. Since the size of the table is not known until runtime, it cannot be initialized using the INITIALIZE statement.
Therefore, the statement "INITIALIZE statement cannot load a variable-length table (one that was defined using OCCURS DEPENDING ON)" is true.
Let's go through each option to understand why it is correct or incorrect:
Option A) True - This option is correct because the INITIALIZE statement cannot be used to load a variable-length table defined using OCCURS DEPENDING ON.
Option B) False - This option is incorrect because the INITIALIZE statement cannot load a variable-length table.
The correct answer is A) True. This option is correct because the INITIALIZE statement cannot be used with variable-length tables defined using OCCURS DEPENDING ON.