I know this is not pretty nor is it logical code wise.. Is it theoretically possible to have multiple hold files union'd together where the COLUMN COUNT does not match.

We have Schools that are broke down by elementary school, middle school, high school and one school may only have grades 6-8 whereas another school as grades 9-12 and we need to build one large hold file to report against so that reportcaster can burst on the school name and then only burst the grades that belong to it.

Wanting to do something sorta like this:

TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST
END
TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST1
END

TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST2
END

TABLE FILE TEST2
PRINT *
MORE
FILE TEST
MORE
FILE TEST1
END

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Kathryn Henning>,

Not that I am aware of.

You should create dummy fields to match the missing columns

TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST
END
TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST1
END
TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST2
END
MATCH FILE TEST
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
RUN
FILE TEST1
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
AFTER MATCH HOLD AS TEST3 OLD-OR-NEW
RUN
FILE TEST2
BY COUNTRY
AFTER MATCH HOLD AS TEST4 OLD-OR-NEW
END
TABLE FILE TEST4
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
END

you can't PRINT * with different field names. you can only PRINT fielda fieldb...
specifying the field names that the hold files DO have in common.
Your other option is to create dummy fields for each file so that your result DOES indeed have the same field names.
So,to make TEST2 ...
DEFINE FILE CAR
CAR/A10=' ';
END
TABLE FILE CAR BY COUNTRY BY MODEL BY CAR...

its even a better idea to define all the fields you want with MISSING ON , so that you can have MISSING as the value on your redefined fields.
Got it?

Another option is to use the APPEND option with FILEDEF.

TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST FORMAT ALPHA
END

FILEDEF TEST DISK test.ftm (APPEND

TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
ON TABLE SAVE AS TEST
END

TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
ON TABLE SAVE AS TEST
END

FILEDEF TEST DISK test.ftm 

TABLE FILE TEST
PRINT *
END

Neuro,
When you use MORE, you must have the same fields (name and format) in all files. So your example won't work.
What you can do is:

  
TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST
END

DEFINE FILE CAR
CAR = ' ';
END
TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST1
END

DEFINE FILE CAR
CAR = ' ';
MODEL = ' ';
END
TABLE FILE CAR
BY COUNTRY
BY MODEL
BY CAR
ON TABLE HOLD AS TEST2
END

TABLE FILE TEST2
PRINT *
MORE 
FILE TEST
MORE 
FILE TEST1
END