Running a report without indexes

[Kenneth Brody]

On 3/21/2013 3:02 PM, Jay Ashworth wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Kenneth Brody" <kenbrody at spamcop.net>
>
>> I understand what you are saying. But, you also keep asking if there's
>> a
>> way to have filePro ignore indexes. The answer is no. Either it needs
>> the
>> indexes, because it's using them, or it's already not using them. (If
>> you
>> get my meaning.)
>>
>> There are very few places where an "invalid index" can be generated,
>> and the
>> only one that should ever be even possible in the scenario you
>> describe
>> (read-only mode, no lookups) would be if filePro couldn't read the
>> index
>> header when the file is first opened, or the "magic number" wasn't
>> valid.
>> And, short of transient network errors (assuming the files are stored
>> on a
>> network share), neither of those make sense for such an intermittent
>> problem.
>
> I hate to point this out, fearless leader, but those two paragraphs
> contradict one another.
>
> You first say that if "it's already not using" the indexes, then it ignores
> them.
>
> But then you at least strongly imply that *it always opens index files
> which exist, and reads their headers*, *even if it's not going to use
> them*.

filePro will open the automatic indexes when the file is opened, and it will 
read the headers.  However, if you're in read-only mode (or never update a 
record), and you never use one of those indexes in a lookup, filePro will 
not touch those indexes again until it closes them.

> That means that there *are* some ways in which an index which is not
> going to be used can still throw an error, which is what the OP is
> complaining about, does it not?

Yes, but only if there is a read failure on the header, or the magic number 
isn't valid for a filePro index.  In either case, that would not cause such 
a transient error, short of some transient read failure.

Yes, it does "use" the indexes in order to read their headers.  But, it will 
not read any of the data within it, nor traverse the tree, nor modify it in 
any way.

-- 
Kenneth Brody