Un-expanding(?) a file

[Fredland at aol.com]

Dear List:

Back in 1985 or so I did a great deal of programming in filePro for a small 
airline and ever since then one of the vendors has been coming to me whenever 
he has a problem. In this case my memory of fp is not sufficient, but the 
problem may contain elements of general interest so here it is.

He is running his business on vers. 4.8. He has a file containing both key 
and data segments (very old program) and about 7000 records. It appears that the 
file has acquired about 7000 blank records possibly via Expand Files(?). As a 
result new records are often numbered 14000+. He doesn't want this to be 
happening (it's not a functional problem - he simply doesn't like it like that) so 
he manually moves any such new records down to the 7000 range. He has gotten 
tired of doing this after several years and would like the file "fixed". This 
is the gist of a phone call from him.

If memory serves (not very well any more) there is a difference between blank 
records and deleted records. I think, but do not know, that he may be able to 
delete his empty blank records with a simple output process and then 
overwrite the expand files limit with a new number in the 7000 range a couple of 
records beyond his active EOF. Once these are used then I would expect the 
automated expand function built into FP to take over. I'm in the midst of a major 
renovation so do not have time to research this and am loath to suggest an 
unverified procedure. Any clarification would be appreciated.

Fred Mindermann
fredland at aol.com