Re: Deleting Records within a CSV file on the IFS

Hi Stephen,

> That's actually what I'm going to end up doing. I'll probably do it
> with MS ACCESS though.

Are you serious? Since this is the RPG forum, I assume you're looking to do this programatically, rather than through a manual, user-driven process.

I realize that it's somewhat cumbersome to copy the entire file in order to delete a record, but let's look at the alternatives you've been given:

a) Copy the entire file to a physical file, delete the record, then copy it back. This process involves copying the file TWICE (instead of once, like I suggested) as well as transforming it's format, potentially doing character set translation, potentially doing field type conversions... it's a much, much, much more convoluted, CPU intensive, and disk intensive than copying everything except the one record.

b) Downloading it to a PC (thus copying the file, not just on disk, but across a network). Opening it with Excel or Access. (Which loads the entire copy into memory) deleting the record in memory, saving it back to disk, and copying it back across the network.

Sorry, but these solutions are much more complicated and much more cumbersome. They also run a higher chance of failure (because there are more steps -- including network communications) they also are more prone to object sharing/locking issues.

All of this might make sense if this is a one-off program. But if this is intended to run as a program, you're creating a mess.

All Excel or Access or EDTF or the PF are going to do is what your program should be doing in the first place. They'll copy the file without the extra records. Why not simply write a loop (it's like 12 lines of code) and be done with it?