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These three answers were originally comments. I am answering the part of the question which was deleted:

Is there anything else (interesting) to say about the collection of subgroups of an [finite] abelian group.

  1. This paper: Ganjuškin, A. G. Enumeration of subgroups of a finite abelian group (theory). Computations in algebra and combinatorial analysis, pp. 148–164, Akad. Nauk Ukrain. SSR, Inst. Kibernet., Kiev, 1978 gives an algorithm for enumerating all subgroups of a finite Abelian group.

Update. The answer by Amritanshu Prasad, comments by Derek Holt and Robin Chapman here provide much more (very interesting) information about enumerating subgroups.

  1. On the other hand, the elementary theory of pairs $(A,H)$ where $A$ is a finite Abelian group and $H$ is its subgroup is undecidable (see Taĭclin, M. A. Elementary theories of lattices of subgroups, Algebra i Logika 9 1970 473–483 and references there). Hence there cannot be a nice description of subgroups of finite Abelian groups (say, one cannot represent a pair $(A,H)$ as a direct product of pairs of sizes bounded in terms of the period of $A$).

  2. This is a better reference than Taiclin. Slobodskoĭ, A. M.; Fridman, È. I.: Theories of abelian groups with predicates that distinguish subgroups. Algebra i Logika 14 (1975), no. 5, 572–575.

Update In fact, in the paper, Sapir, M. V. Varieties with a finite number of subquasivarieties. Sibirsk. Mat. Zh. 22 (1981), no. 6, 168–187, I proved that for every prime $p$ one cannot find finitely many pairs $(A_i,H_i)$ such that every pair $(A,H)$ where $A$ is Abelian group of period $p^6$ (it is not true for $p^5$) is a direct product of copies of $(A_i,H_i)$.

show/hide this revision's text 3 added 179 characters in body

These three answers were originally comments. I am answering the part of the question which was deleted:

Is there anything else (interesting) to say about the collection of subgroups of an [finite] abelian group.

  1. This paper: Ganjuškin, A. G. Enumeration of subgroups of a finite abelian group (theory). Computations in algebra and combinatorial analysis, pp. 148–164, Akad. Nauk Ukrain. SSR, Inst. Kibernet., Kiev, 1978 gives an algorithm for enumerating all subgroups of a finite Abelian group.

  2. On the other hand, the elementary theory of pairs $(A,H)$ where $A$ is a finite Abelian group and $H$ is its subgroup is undecidable (see Taĭclin, M. A. Elementary theories of lattices of subgroups, Algebra i Logika 9 1970 473–483 and references there). Hence there cannot be a nice description of subgroups of finite Abelian groups (say, one cannot represent a pair $(A,H)$ as a direct product of pairs of sizes bounded in terms of the period of $A$).

  3. This is a better reference than Taiclin. Slobodskoĭ, A. M.; Fridman, È. I.: Theories of abelian groups with predicates that distinguish subgroups. Algebra i Logika 14 (1975), no. 5, 572–575.

Update In fact, in the paper, Sapir, M. V. Varieties with a finite number of subquasivarieties. Sibirsk. Mat. Zh. 22 (1981), no. 6, 168–187, I proved that for every prime $p$ one cannot find finitely many pairs $(A_i,H_i)$ such that every pair $(A,H)$ where $A$ is Abelian group of period $p^6$ (it is not true for $p^5$) is a direct product of copies of $(A_i,H_i)$.

show/hide this revision's text 2 added 388 characters in body

These three answers were originally comments.

  1. This paper: Ganjuškin, A. G. Enumeration of subgroups of a finite abelian group (theory). Computations in algebra and combinatorial analysis, pp. 148–164, Akad. Nauk Ukrain. SSR, Inst. Kibernet., Kiev, 1978 gives an algorithm for enumerating all subgroups of a finite Abelian group.

  2. On the other hand, the elementary theory of pairs $(A,H)$ where $A$ is a finite Abelian group and $H$ is its subgroup is undecidable (see Taĭclin, M. A. Elementary theories of lattices of subgroups, Algebra i Logika 9 1970 473–483 and references there). Hence there cannot be a nice description of subgroups of finite Abelian groups (say, one cannot represent a pair $(A,H)$ as a direct product of pairs of sizes bounded in terms of the period of $A$).

  3. This is a better reference than Taiclin. Slobodskoĭ, A. M.; Fridman, È. I.: Theories of abelian groups with predicates that distinguish subgroups. Algebra i Logika 14 (1975), no. 5, 572–575.

Update In fact, in the paper, Sapir, M. V. Varieties with a finite number of subquasivarieties. Sibirsk. Mat. Zh. 22 (1981), no. 6, 168–187, I proved that for every prime $p$ one cannot find finitely many pairs $(A_i,H_i)$ such that every pair $(A,H)$ where $A$ is Abelian group of period $p^6$ (it is not true for $p^5$) is a direct product of copies of $(A_i,H_i)$.

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