| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ MICROFILE (POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY) ★ |
Data Remember (Popular Computing Weekly) | Completing the file (Popular Computing Weekly) |
Continued from last week part two of Microfile by Peter Patton After running the program you might want to create a new file. After considering what was said last week about the art of file design, select option 1 from the Main Menu. Answer the prompts as they appear on screen. Firstly, enter the filename for this file, then the number of fields you will require. NB. If you allocate seven fields you must use seven fields, as blank field names are not allowed. You will be prompted in turn for a field name and a field length for each of the fields. The field name is just a label to allow you to identify the data segments. If you make a mistake don't worry. After entering all the field names and lengths, you will be given the opportunity to amend any section. Once you are happy that your file structure is as intended, select the Save parameters option and follow the prompts to save the file parameters which you have just created. If you Quit without saving the parameters will be lost. Entering Data Select option 2 from the Main Menu then select option 1 from the second menu. After Loading the parameters for the file, the record layout will be displayed on the screen, and you will get the prompt: Load Data File (Y or N). Answer 'N'. You will then get the prompt: Begin A New Data File (Y or N) answer this Y. You are now ready to begin entering data into your file. If you wish to leave a field blank then simply press Enter and you will see that the cursor moves to the start of the next field. Note that you are not allowed to backspace out of the field, or to enter data beyond its preset limit. Saving Your Data At the end of a session entering data, it is always advisable to Save the contents of the file. If you were to suffer a power cut before you had Saved the file, it would be lost. From the second menu select option 4 (Return to Main Menu), then from the mam menu select option 3 (Save Data File). Follow the prompts and your file will be saved to cassette. If you are using the same cassette for both the file parameters and the data file, do not overwrite the parameters for the file! Leave a big gap between the end of the parameters and the start of the data file, then label the cassette. To load an existing data dile, follow the procedure for starting a new file outlined above; however, when prompted to Load Data File (Y or N) answer yes. Then follow the prompts to load your file. You may now use options 2 and 3 from the second menu to explore the file. To add new records to the file simply select option 2 from the second menu, and select the '+' to add a record. Finally, when searching for specific data in youi files, you will be allowed to search on a single field of your choice. Such searches are set up in such a way as to find any ambiguous reference, and this can produce results which you may not expect. If for example you were looking for Pat to find the name Paton, you would also turn up names like Patterson, Patrick, Patton, etc. However, this feature is extremely powerful, and some of its usefulness would be lost if I were to take away its ambiguous aspects. Using the Program:
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