4 - subfiles

[boothm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Here's a subfile question.  I'm not very good with them.  I have a display screen showing a subfile with 4 fields.  Each field is the key to a logical file so there are 4 logical files in the F-specs.  For clarity, lets call the fields LastName, FirstName, ExtNbr, DeptName.  I want the user to be able to display any one of the 4 logical files.  I know the file will never grow beyond 999 because the ExtNbr field is 3/0, and because there's only about 150 extensions now, anyway.   Every time the user selects another logical to display I clear the subfile and  reload the entire file to the subfile.  With a dozen test records I'm getting sub-second reloads.  Now, as the number of records increases it seems to me that reload times will increase.  Still, I know that 5000 records load in 11 or 12 seconds so the time for about 200 records will probably be a second or two.

However, it occurs to me that having loaded the subfile, I shouldn't need to read the data file again.  I am thinking there must be an easy way to save the subfile in case it is needed again, instead of just clearing it, or am I tilting at windmills?