I need to add the field to the periodic group on a big file and can not figure out an easy way to do this, because with adadbm I can add a field only to the end of the file.
I would really appreciate any help.
Thanks
Yelena
classic workaround for this, particularly if you are trying to add an alpha field:
- find an adjacent field with compatible format and expand it. If you need to add a (A3) field, then take one of the PE elements and expand it by 3 (eg A5 to A8) with a filemod. This changes the standard length of that field
- unload and decompress the file
- modify your definition to include the new field, resetting the neighbour field back to its original size
- compress and load
Packed numerics (and some other formats - binary, dates, etc) may require some additional futzing - expand the neighbour field, load the new bytes with valid packed data with a natural program (eg redefine the expanded field A8 as A5/P5, reset the P5, update), then unload/decompress/compress/load
Wow, never even crossed my mind. Since I had to add just a simple 1 byte alphanumeric filed it was really a great idea.
Had to dig through utility documentation though for the right options, but it worked just fine.
Thank you so much.
Yelena