The CIFLIB functions which access and update individual item values return only a single error code. Functions providing read access only return the first error encountered in checking the target item. Similarly, functions providing update access only return the first error encountered in the checking process; however, other problems that may be detected are appended to the warning or error lists maintained for each datablock. Higher level functions, like cifReadFile, also append their diagnostic codes to internal error and warning lists. A set of functions has been provided to access and refresh these lists. Functions are also provided to translate individual error codes and to print the contents of an entire data block.