Hi Focals,
In my actual project i use focus files as a temporary data source. How can i force WEBFocus to create always a new focus file. In the first run with a big select i got nearly a 2 GB focus file. With a small select with only some rows in the output, the focus file is still 2 GB big.

Greetings

Christian

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ChristianP,

Hi Christian,

Where is the file stored?
On a RDMS I guess?
Depending on your RDMS the size of a file will only become smaller after a 'reorganize' ( or whatever your RDMS calls it ).

The file is not deleted. Because that takes a lot of time ( performance ). So instead of deleting it, it just marks the rows als 'deleted'. But it still uses the full 2 GB.

I guess when it's a temporary data source it will be removed after the procedure is completed.


Greets ( grüsse ), Dave

Hi Dave,
the file is located on EDASERVE in the folder of the master files. Which command do i have to use to delete the file after the fex is ready. I point to the Folder with APP HOLD XXXX.

heel hartelijk bedankt

Hi,
You could perhaps use the APP DELETEFILE command. This will mean that the FOCUS DB is stored in an accessible APPS folder.
The syntax is:
APP DELETEFILE app_dir filename FOCUS
Where "app" is the application directory, and "filename" is the FOCUS DB file name.

The size of the file doesn't really matter that much. If the file is re-used by means of a ON TABLE HOLD AS xxx FORMAT FOCUS (or even with CREATE FILE) then the file will be erased internally and will recieve a new contents. The file size will not change, however. If that is a problem, then use Twanette's solution.

Its always safer to delete prior to creating. Even if its just for space reasons.

You wouldn't want the create to fail and then report from the previous file.

Unless you have a DATASET parameter in your master, if you use the CREATE FILE command a new FOCUS file is alway created in the execution folder under edatemp. I have a job that grabs data from about 60 Oracle tables and builds a FOCUS file for adhoc reporting. This job runs at 2:30am and takes about 30 minutes to run. While the job runs, the new FOCUS file is in the temp folder for the ageent in edatemp and the previous file and the master are in baseapp. When the job finishes I do a Unix move (mv) command like this:

-UNIX mv filename.foc &APPROOT/baseapp

If anyone happens to run something while the file is being created, they get the data from the previous file in baseapp.

quote:

Originally posted by Twanette:

The syntax is:
APP DELETEFILE app_dir filename FOCUS
Where "app" is the application directory, and "filename" is the FOCUS DB file name.

I couldn't get this to work, however, this does work;
APP DELETEF app_dir filename FOCUS
(FOCUS being the format of the hold file)

@Waz
I agree that deleting prior to recreating a hold file is a good best practice. So thanks for the idea and I have just incorporated this into one of our automated processes.

I love Focal Point, I learn so much.

what about the USE (and/or CREATE) commands?
USE
appname/filename.foc NEW
END
wipes out the original before your fex creates the new one.

quote:

wipes out the original before your fex creates the new one

Does it also free the space ?

Hi Focals,

thanks for the big range of help!!! Iuse the

quote:

APP DELETEF app_dir filename FOCUS

command and it works!!

Greetings

Christian