Retrieve and occurrence example:
     TRN WORK DATE occurs 66 times (DD)         
        . . .
     SET --- TEMP 30     =     WORK DATE (note this is a literal)
     SET 0AD ELEMENT NAM = --- TEMP 30
     READ 0AD ELEMENT  HOLD 0 FT 0 BY ELEMENT NAM 
     SET --- AI = 0AD ELEMENT OCC

AI will contain 66 in this example.

Now in 4.2 you can use the two new PDFs --- CURSOR AT APPLICATION and --- CURSOR AT FIELD
just in case the user happened to be sitting on the field of interest.
...
     SET --- NEXT APPLICATION = --- CURSOR AT APPLICATION
     OPEN 0AD ELEMENT
T    SET --- TEMP 30     = --- CURSOR AT FIELD
T    SET 0AD ELEMENT NAM = --- TEMP 30
TT   READ 0AD ELEMENT  HOLD 0 FT 0 BY ELEMENT NAM 
...
I haven't tested this to see if it really works and I'm not sure if the
T    SET --- TEMP 30     = --- CURSOR AT FIELD
would really be required.