Datapage

[ag162]

Hello,
I have dealt with datapage for several years and have had no experience with removing or deleating data from a file. Can this be done thru the editor?

Thanks in Advance,
A.Gore

[\v/inston]

ASCII dump to notepad thru the editor - make your changes - then upload it back into datapage.

[T Miller]

I have removed data with the editor... if it is a lot to do... Go the way of Winston

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

First and foremost, BACKUP THE DATA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Easiest to do, copy the entire folder with the database in it.
Second (and should be done as well) is to ASCII dump the data to a file
THEN and only then, you can delete the data out of Datapage using the editor, use VIEW, DATA VALUES, then find the job, select ALL the variables and ALL the transactions. HIGHTLIGHT the transactions you want to delete, then go EDIT / DELETE. Then you have to save it. They will now no longer appear in the database, HOWEVER, they will all STILL BE THERE, taking up space. Now, hard drives these days have lots of space, but the more invisible garbage you have in the database, the longer it will take to get a report from Datapage. It really bogs down with the databse gets BIG. SO, there are two options to fix this, and here is what you have to do:

OPTION 1
Make a brand new database from Datapage and use that from now on (it will be a different path than before for saving the stats).

OPTION 2

1) Copy the folder with the database in it
2) ASCII dump all the data to a file
3) Delete the 'PARTS' and the 'TRANSACTIONS' that you want removed
4) ASCII dump all the data to a file again, but this will be the data you want to keep, so don't over-write the first dump file
5) Delete all the database files
6) Create a new database in the same directory that the origional was
7) ASCII load the second file, the one with the 'good' data in it.

This is how you get it back down to a usable size. I have seen up to a 50% decrease in Datapage speed when the database gets too full.

Of course, if you are only trying to get rid of 'flier' data, just use the first set of instructions (way up in this post).

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Oh, and the space taken up by the 'deleted' data will never ever get freed up until you purge the database like I said. It isn't like deleted file on the hard drive, that are 'still there' and can be written over by something else, once data is in the database, it is there FOREVER, or until the database locks up or until you purge as I described in my previous post.

[ag162]

,,,,,,,,,,,I believe it will just be easier to just select the data that I want, rather than going thru all of that. But thanks for the posts.

A.Gore