Will Johnson wrote on Tue, 19 Jul 2005 01:55:51 EDT > Remove does not confuse me. Remove unnecessarily confuses other > people. ... > READNEXT works just find for processing a multi-item list just as > REMOVE does and it's much more widely used and understood. > > So I see no point to the Remove command at all.
The important difference between using READNEXT and REMOVE is that READNEXT will return the entire next item, while REMOVE only returns up to the next system delimiter. If you have value marks or sub-value marks in your attributes, REMOVE will break them up into their individual components, whereas READNEXT will not. To my mind, the READNEXT structure is more straightfoward if you need to process each attribute separately. The REMOVE command requires setting a variable, which usually should be checked to ensure that the correct delimiter was encountered. It is useful when you need to process each individual value separately. As is often the case, we have a variety of specialized tools, and we need to use the appropriate tool for each task. For example, one could use a torque wrench to tighten every single nut and bolt in the world, but for most applications, this isn't necessary, and in some cases, is more difficult to use. REMOVE has its uses (there is a point to it), but the original post (if anyone recalls that! :->) was concerned with using DCOUNT followed by a FOR loop, and I believe the LOOP WHILE READNEXT ITEM FROM ITEM.LIST syntax is a more straightforward alternative than the REMOVE syntax. --Tom Pellitieri Toledo, Ohio ------- u2-users mailing list u2-users@listserver.u2ug.org To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
