SQL Mass Delete Vs. READ/DELETE

Hi All,



I don't want to start a whole new flame war on the merits of SQL vs.
READ/DELETE, but I wanted to get some opinions as to the best way to
tackle a problem.



I have quite a few tables that have a large number of records in them
("large" to us is 13 million). I have two methods I am currently
testing and I wanted to know which is the best method to get rid of old
records:



Method #1 - Perform a mass delete using set criteria in an SQL
statement:

C/Exec SQL

C+ delete from sst01 where dsetdt <= int(:tmyyyymmdd)

C/End-exec

C*



Method #2 - Start at the beginning of the PF and examine each record.
Delete out those that meet the criteria:

read SST01;

dow not %eof(SST01);

if dsetdt <= %int(tmyyyymmdd);

delete rsst01;

ENDIF;

read SST01;

ENDDO;



Any thoughts?



Thanks!



/b;



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Brian Piotrowski
Assistant Mgr. - I.T.
Simcoe Parts Service, Inc.
Ph: 705-435-7814 x343
Fx: 705-435-6746
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