Hi,
I am trying to create a file with a single field -- a sequence number. I would like to then be able to retrieve that sequence number, increment it by 1 and then write the new sequence number back to my file. I've tried using filedef in conjunction with -READ and -WRITE but I can't seem to get it to work. And, for some reason, when I create an & variable and set it equal to the value I've -READ from my file, it stores the name of my & variable, not the value of it. Does anyone have code that will do what I want? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

This works:

FILEDEF D001 DISK C:\TEMP\D001.txt
-RUN

-READ D001 &SEQ.I4.

-TYPE AFTER READ: &SEQ

-SET &SEQ = &SEQ + 10001;

-SET &SEQ = EDIT(&SEQ,'$9999');

-TYPE BEFORE WRITE: &SEQ

-WRITE D001 &SEQ

-READ D001 &SEQ.I4.

-TYPE AFTER READ: &SEQ

Adding 10001 instead of 1 preserves the leading zeros. If you just add 1 then the leading zeros get truncated and written to the file. If you do a subsequent READ, it may not work, because the sequence number may not be the length as specified in the -READ statement.

I created a text file containing one row with the value 0055. I ran the code repeatedly and it successfully updated the text file.

The number being added has to be one digit bigger than the value you're reading in: I assume my largest sequence number will be four digits, hence I add 10001.

Tell me how this goes.

Hi, Francis
This was exactly what I was looking for. Not sure why I couldn't make this work. Thanks so much for your help.