change size of two fields without increasing size of file

[Jean-Pierre A. Radley]

Dennis Malen propounded (on Wed, Sep 09, 2009 at 12:04:36PM -0400):
| Assume the following:
| 
| Field 7 is 20 digits.
| Field 86 is 6 digits.
| 
| I want to add 5 digits to field 7 and reduce field 86 to 1 digit.
| 
| Can I go in and change the size and let it rip? Will all the other fields 
| remain intact?

Dennis, do you ever try anything for yourself before asking us about it?

Clone the whole file and make the change on one of the copies.

Or create a test file with, say, three fields, one of length 20, another
of length 6, and a third of any old length, populated by maybe five
records, and see what happens.

While you're at it, change the edits as well as the lengths and look at
what ensues.

It should all be quite clear when you're done.

-- 
JP