REMOVE (Remove Key ID) › REMOVE › When to Use

When to Use

When you change a key definition's length, the old key information must be removed from the Index before rebuilding the Index with the LOAD or Retrieve Index (RETIX) functions. A key's information can be removed from the Index using the REMOVE function, or by initializing the Index. In most cases, REMOVE is preferred because DBUTLTY does not have to rebuild the remaining key definitions when the LOAD or RETIX is executed.

When a large database is involved, executing REMOVE for the key ID(s) whose length(s) changed followed by LOAD or RETIX is generally faster. This is because the Index is rebuilt in a merge operation; so, DBUTLTY does not have to rewrite entries for key IDs that were not changed or deleted. However, when the database contains a single area with fewer than 100,000 records, initializing the Index (using INIT) is generally faster than using REMOVE before performing a LOAD or Retrieve Index (RETIX). In all other cases, REMOVE is recommended.