MODIFYING DATA

The updating commands, UPDATE ADD, UPDATE DELETE, and UPDATE REPLACE, change the data in the data base. UPDATE DELETE and UPDATE REPLACE operate on the entries selected by the last FIND, FIND ALL, or SUBSET command following a FIND or FIND ALL command. UPDATE ADD does not require a previous retrieval command.

You can modify your data base in three ways:

You must have specified an access mode of 1, 2, 3, or 4 to use the updating commands. If you opened the data base with another mode, you can use the MODE=, DEFINE, DATA-BASE=, or MULTIDB command to specify another mode. If you opened the data base with mode 2, you can only use UPDATE REPLACE. If you specify mode 1, 3, or 4, you can use any of the updating commands. However, if the data base administrator has disallowed data base modification, no one can modify the data base, regardless of the mode specified.

      >DEFINE
      DATA-BASE = >>ORDERS
      PASSWORD = >>CLERK
      MODE = >>2
      DATA-SETS = >>CUSTOMER
      PROC-ENTITY = >>RETURN
      OUTPUT = TERM
      OUTPUT = >>RETURN
      >FIND LAST-NAME IS MARTENSEN
      USING SERIAL READ
      1  ENTRIES QUALIFIED
      >UPDATE REPLACE,STREET-ADDRESS="2451 CHASEN ROAD";END
      >

An updating command can be stored as a procedure in a Proc-file for repeated use without re-entering the command. Updating procedures can be created which prompt you for the values to be added, deleted, or replaced when the procedure is executed. This allows you to modify the data with different values for the same data item(s) each time the procedure is executed.