Category : Databases and related files
Archive   : DATAMAGE.ZIP
Filename : SELECTAL.HLP

"SELECT RECORDS ALPHA HELP"

"When records are selected by alpha comparison a data segment may be"
"targeted or all alphanumeric, or string, fields may be searched. The"
"value as comparitor is entered from the keyboard. The purpose of"
"record selection, whether alpha or numeric comparison is employed, is"
"to dis-continue processing the records not conforming to the parameter"
"specified; to reject them from the current group."

"Full-screen menus guide you through the setup of the EXCLUSIVE SORT"
"about to be done. First you are asked if you wish to use one segment,"
"or all fields holding alpha data as the target of the record selection"
"process. If you have done previous record selects, and have not acces-"
"sed the counters, you may opt to sort the survivors of the last sort,"
"deleting non-survivors from the current group, or to sort all records,"
"adding survivors to the current group, and ending up with a group of"
"records meeting one or more of the specified criterion."

"Then you will enter the search string, or the data you're looking for."
"Finally you choose the direction of the sort; whether the survivors"
"will or will not contain the search string."

"Before executing the sort, the program re-displays your input. If you"
"have erred you can re-select the parameters, or abort the sort."

"Case and spacing may be optionally ignored. If you opt to ignore case"
"and spacing entering `fredjones' would include records containing FRED"
"JONES, Fred Jones and Fred JONES in the survivor group. If you opt to"
"exactly match case and spacing none of the above examples would be put"
"into the survivor group; only those records containing an exact match"
"would be seen by the program as survivors."

"You may also choose matching on strict equality or instring searching."
"If you opt for an instring search and enter FRED as your search string"
"then all records containing the word fred will be survivors. That in-"
"cludes Fred Jones, Fred Davis, and Joe Fred, too."

"If you opt for strict equality then only those records containing the"
"five letters FRED will be survivors. Case and spacing can still be ig-"
"nored, if you wish."

"When you return to browse the records not containing the search string"
"will not be displayed, printed, found, totaled-averaged, etc. Until"
"you press F11 they might as well not be in the file."

"If you targeted a single segment for the search it will be displayed"
"in the secondary screen area so that you can visually verify the res-"
"ults of your sort. To turn it off Press F18 and then press 3."

"You may do as many record selects as necessary to define your group."

"At times you may find that this and other functions have not done what"
"you thought they would. The only reason you will, by paying attention,"
"be able to catch errors as they happen is the one-step operation. If"
"you selected on all your criterion at once you would, of necessity, be"
"deprived of your opportunity to verify what happened by BROWSING the"
"survivors between operations."

"Wouldn't it be FASTER if we did it all in ONE PASS through the file?"

"Two factors govern the speed of the select records operations: number"
"of records to be processed and number of tests to be done. Each select"
"causes the next one to have fewer records to deal with, and with the"
"advantage of a single test being done the difference in speed is not"
"as great as you might imagine."

"An appropriate response to incorrect data is a MISTAKE. The production"
"of mistakes, no matter how rapid, has no facility. If you use the"
"tools provided by THE DATAMAGE your results will be correct. ACCURACY"
"needs no excuses."