System date behavior wish (GRX)

[Chris Sellitto]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> filepro-list-bounces+sellich=guaranteedreturns.com at lists.celestial.com
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+sellich=guaranteedreturns.com at lis
> ts.celesti
> al.com]On Behalf Of Bob Stockler
> Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 12:55 PM
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: System date behavior wish (GRX)
> 
> 
> Chris Sellitto wrote (on Mon, Feb 12, 2007 at 09:19:45AM -0500):
> 
> | I don't know (or remember) if this topic has been broached in the
> | past, but here goes.  I was wondering how difficult it would be to
> | have the @system date fields retain their values upon copying new
> | records.  I know it would be just as easy carrying a date field on
> | the record, but I feel this is an inefficient way of doing things,
> | not to mention a waste of field space.  We archive our data here on
> | a regular basis, and having this option would be great.  Maybe have
> | a new flag on the copy command that would instruct filePro to
> | retain its system dates (@cd, @ud, @bd).
> 
> A Work-A-Round until you get your wish . . .
> 
> Creat two Alien filePro Files, one with its "real file" the "key"
> file from which you're archiving, the other's "real file" being
> the "key" file of the file to which you're archiving.
> 
> The file layouts (map files) would have field #1 length 20, edit *,
> for filePro's info, with the rest of the map similar to the fields
> in the source and destination files.
> 
> Do your archiving using these Alien files.
> 
> Copy the record to be archived, intact, from the source file to
> the archive file (binary filePro File I/0 is good for this).
> 
> Make all characters in Field #1 of the source file record be equal
> to chr("0") (ie: NUL), then make all characters in the balance of
> that record be equal to " ") (ie: Space), then write it.
> 
> Run "freechain" on the source file.  Presumeably, you'll be archiving
> only active (used) records, so it's not necessary to run "freechain"
> on the archive file.
> 
> The result will be that @cb, @ub, @cd, @ud, and @bd are preserved
> with their original values in your archive file.
> 
> Bob
> 
> -- 
> Bob Stockler  +-+  bob at trebor.iglou.com  +-+  

Thanks Bob, for your method.  Although, I think I still may wait for a new filePro feature.

Chris