Subject Re: Append problem xdml From Charlie <tn@tc.com> Date Sun, 08 Nov 2020 12:17:00 -0500 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started Thanks..  that should be very helpful.   Akshat Kapoor Wrote: > Good Evening Charlie, > > > Hi Akshat...   I am the original programmer and originally wrote the original code in dos in I believe the late 80's  In 2016 took around 6 moths to change this over to mainly oodml but I left some of the original program in xdml which I am more familiar with although I have learned a lot about oodml.   Even so I still code many of my scrips in xdml which I will argue is easier to do and run better at least for me. (.prg only.) > There was a time when I would have opted for prg but now I have moved > over to RDBMS and hence cannot opt for that. > OODML with full sql support is much more powerful and easy. > > > > All I am asking is for a reason why the size of the table is changing.  This has stumped me, but there has to be a reason and I hope someone might be able to point me in the right direction to figure this out. > > I have never analysed this before > > With the structure of dbf tables I am aware of (very limited knowledge) > size of tables should not alter till there are one or more of the > following reasons > 1. Append of rows > 2. Packing of table > > Deletion of rows should not effect size as the byte denoting deletion is > already there it has to be turned on/off. > > All fields have fixed length and their space is reserved. What i do not > know is how nulls are treated. > > Check the number of nulls in the columns you are updating before and > after the update. Does the size change correspond to diff in number of > rows x size of field. > > On an experimental basis try deleting or recalling a row. Does it cause > a change of size when the table is closed. > > Apart from the above I have no idea what is causing the change. > > At times refreshing the windows explorer may also display the current > size. The data may be stale and not being upto date. > > Regards > Akshat