Keywords › Keyword Descriptions › REPLACE

REPLACE

The REPLACE keyword overwrites the data found at a particular record position according to the selection criteria. You can use REPLACE more than once during a command.

The to-data and from-data may be unequal in length. Unlike the CHANGE keyword, REPLACE makes no attempt to shift data to accommodate for the unequal lengths. If the to-data is less than the from-data, only that portion of the from-data is overwritten. If the to-data is greater than the from-data, the data immediately to the right of the from-data is overwritten, but only up to the current record length. REPLACE makes no attempt to change the record size for variable record lengths. With either field-name or to-field-name only the data defined by these fields are replaced. No data outside of these fields are changed.