The paths of a railroad diagram lead you through the command or statement from beginning to end. Some railroad diagrams have only one path; others have several alternate paths that provide choices in the commands or statements.

The following railroad diagram indicates only one path that requires the constant LINKAGE and the variable <linkage mnemonic>:

── LINKAGE ──<linkage mnemonic>────────────────────────────────────────┤

Alternate paths are provided by

More complex railroad diagrams can consist of many alternate paths, or nested (lower-level) diagrams, that show a further level of detail.

For example, the following railroad diagram consists of a top path and two alternate paths. The top path includes

These constants are within a loop that can be repeated any number of times until all options have been selected.

The first alternative path requires the ampersand and the required constant ADDRESS. The second alternative path requires the ampersand followed by the required constant ALTER and the required variable <new value>.

        ┌◄────── , ─────┐
── & ─┬─┴─┬─ TYPE ────┬─┴────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┤
      │   ├─ ASCII ───┤      │
      │   ├─ BCL ─────┤      │
      │   ├─ DECIMAL ─┤      │
      │   ├─ EBCDIC ──┤      │
      │   ├─ HEX ─────┤      │
      │   └─ OCTAL ───┘      │
      ├─ ADDRESS ────────────┤
      └─ ALTER ──<new value>─┘