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# 6613 - Selecting Records to Print or Merge
DocumentID: 10041
Revision Date: 27-Feb-97 1:21:34 PM

The information in this document applies to:
WordPerfect® 5.1 for DOS

Problem

This document describes how to print or merge selected records from a secondary merge file.

Answer:

All of these solutions will use the three merge records displayed in this document. In all cases, we will only be searching for the records that list the city of Provo in field 4.

Solution 1
Manually enter #{END FIELD} to indicate the fields you want to sort. This can be done on any field in your record, but it is generally easier on the first field. This solution is best if you are selecting random records where the information isn't uniform. For example, the cities may all be different, the zip codes may not match, and so on.

1. Determine which field you will use as the marker field. In this example, we will place the marker after all other fields, thereby creating a seventh field.

2. Move to the beginning of the first record. If this record fits your criteria, move to the bottom of the record (before the {END RECORD} but after the last {END FIELD}). Type # and press {END FIELD} (F9). If it does not fit your criteria, just press {END FIELD} (F9). For this example, the records for Jason Huntington and Kristen Black will have #{END FIELD}on the first line. The record for Gloria Cassidy will simply have an {END FIELD}.

Adding an {END FIELD} to every record, whether it fits your criteria or not, ensures that there will be the same number of fields in each record. At this point, you can either perform a sort and search for the pound sign, or you can use an {IF} statement to merge.

Once you have marked the records you want, there are two ways to select the information you want to print or merge. One is to sort by the pound sign (#), and the other is to merge the file.

Method 1
To perform the sort,

1. Press Merge/Sort (Ctrl+F9), then choose Sort (2).

2. Press Enter twice to go to the Sort screen.

3. Choose Type (7), then choose Merge (1). The title of the sort screen will now be "Sort Secondary Merge File".

4. Choose Keys (3). Because this is an alphabetical sort, and we are only looking at the first word of the first record on the first line, the choices under Key 1 need to be a 7 1 1. Press Exit when you have finished setting the keys.

5. Choose Select (4).

6. Type key1=# so that the sort will only select the records that have #{END FIELD} on the last line. Press Exit (F7) when you have finished setting your selections.

7. Choose Perform Action (1).

8. Save the resulting file and run the merge with the original primary file and this new secondary file.

Method 2
To run the merge,

1. Create a merge document with an {IF} statement in it. This will be your primary document. The following commands are the merge codes for this example. They should be placed at the top of your primary file.

{LABEL}top~{IF}"{FIELD}7~"!="#"~{COMMENT}
~{NEXT RECORD}{GO}top~{END IF}{COMMENT}
~{FIELD}1~
{FIELD}3~
{FIELD}4~ {FIELD}5~ {FIELD}6~

2. Press Merge/Sort (Ctrl+F9), then choose Merge (1).

3. Enter the names for your primary and secondary documents.

The merge will then extract only those records you have selected.
Solution 2
Create a sort that will select the records that you need. In this example, we will again search for all records containing the city of Provo.

1. Retrieve the document that contains your secondary file.

2. Press Merge/Sort (Ctrl+F9), then choose Sort (2). Press Enter twice to go to the Sort screen.

3. Choose Type (7), then choose Merge (1). The title of the sort screen will now be "Sort Secondary Merge File".

4. Choose Keys (3). Because this is an alphabetical sort, and we are only looking at the first word of the first record on the first line, the choices under Key 1 need to be a 4 1 1. Press Exit when you have finished setting the keys.

5. Choose Select (4). Type key1=Provo so that the sort will only select the records that contain the city of Provo in the fourth field. Press Exit when you are finished setting your selections.

6. Choose Perform Action (1).

When the sort is finished, only the records containing the city of Provo will be in your new document.

7. Save the sort results under a new name and merge this document with your primary file.

Details:

A secondary merge file is composed of pieces of information listed in a repeating pattern. Each piece of information in the pattern fits into a designated field in a primary merge file. When you merge a primary and secondary file, WordPerfect detects the field codes in the primary file and inserts the corresponding pieces of information from the secondary file into the designated fields.

The information in a secondary file is divided like a database into records and fields. An {END FIELD} code followed by a hard return code ([HRt]) indicates the end of a field (or piece of information) in the secondary file. An {END RECORD} code and a hard page code ([HPg]) indicate the end of a record (or repeating pattern) in a secondary file.

For example, three consecutive records in a secondary merge file might look like this on your screen:

Jason Huntington{END FIELD}
801-555-4321{END FIELD}
8910 State St.{END FIELD}
Provo{END FIELD}
UT{END FIELD}
84606{END FIELD}
{END RECORD}
===================
Gloria Cassidy{END FIELD}
801-555-1234{END FIELD}
1112 Center St.{END FIELD}
Orem{END FIELD}
UT{END FIELD}
84057{END FIELD}
{END RECORD}
==================
Kristen Black{END FIELD}
801-555-9876{END FIELD}
372 University Ave.{END FIELD}
Provo{END FIELD}
UT{END FIELD}
84604{END FIELD}
{END RECORD}
===================

You may need to create a report that only includes part of the records from your secondary file. For example, you may only need a list of customers in a certain area code or with the same last name. There are two ways to generate such a report.

See Also
Appendix K: Macros and Merge, Programming Commands in the WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS reference manual
Sort in the WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS reference manual


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