| Navigation: Language Reference > 13 - Built-in Functions >====== APPEND (add a new file record) ====== |    |
APPEND(file [,length])
| APPEND | Writes a new record to a FILE. |
| file | The label of a FILE declaration. |
| length | An integer constant, variable, or expression which contains the number of bytes to write to the file. The length must be greater than zero and not greater than the length of the RECORD. If omitted or out of range, length defaults to the length of the RECORD structure. |
The APPEND statement writes a new record from the RECORD structure data buffer to the data file. No KEYs associated with the file are updated during an APPEND. After APPENDing records, the KEYs must be rebuilt with the BUILD command.
APPEND is usually used in batch processes, to speed the process of adding a large number of records at one time to the file. For most every file system, it is much faster to add 5000 records to a file using APPEND (and then issue BUILD atthe end of the process to rebuild all the keys at once) than it is to use ADD to add the same 5000 records (which automatically updates the keys with each new record added).
If an error is posted, no record is added to the file. If there is no room for the record on disk, the “Access Denied” error is posted.
Errors Posted:
| 05 | Access Denied |
| 37 | File Not Open |
Example:
LOOP !Process an input file
NEXT(InFile) !getting each record in turn
IF ERRORCODE() !break loop on error
BREAK
END
Cus:Record = Inf:Record !Copy the data to Customer file
APPEND(Customer) !and APPEND a customer record
IF ERRORCODE() !check for errors
STOP(ERROR())
END
END
BUILD(Customer) !Re-build Keys
See Also: