FIle restructure bastardization

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting Don Coleman (Tue, 20 Sep 2005 12:18:22 -0400):

> I have a fP file with 16 qualifiers and a total for 51M records spread
> across the qualifiers.  This business functions 24/7 and it presents
> quite a disruption to have them down for any period of time.  Within
> this file are two YESNO flag fields which are always either "Y" or left
> blank.  Rather than attempt to restructure this file which will take
> hours (Windows network) can I copy a modified map file (with everyone
> out of the system) changing the edit on these two fields from YESNO to
> either * or ALLUP?  Will the new map preserve the fields containing the
> "Y" data?  I do realize that this is not the preferred method of
> restructuring a file but you can see where I am going.  Doing so will
> allow me to use various codes in those fields instead of the limitation
> of Y,N, blank and not force me to add additional fields.

ObDisclaimer:  This is not an official endorsement by fPTech, just
my own opinion.

Since you aren't changing the length of the fields, and the new type
would accept the existing data as-is, with no effect on sort-order
(in case there are indexes built on them), you could theoretically
edit the map, changing "YESNO" to "*" or "ALLUP", even while people
are using the file, with no ill effect.

Of course, I would highly recommend trying this out on a test file
first.

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