Re: UPDATE code

[John Darrington]

On Sun, Apr 07, 2013 at 10:07:44PM +0000, Crichton, Ronald wrote:
     Actually, there is a difference between the two input files - subtle, but 
     it's there!  (Name and age values are different.) 

But your example says to update "/by ClientID"  - both files contain exactly the
same values of ClientID.  Hence you will end up with the data from the second
file.


     I now realise that the PSPP update command reads data from the Master file 
     and reads data from the Transaction file and from this data the 'active' 
     file is manipulated to reflect the intended updates.  The original data in 
     Master remains unaffected.  At the end of the run nothing changes.  To 
     retain the updates the active file must be saved.  

That's correct.
     
     The user manual is a little ambiguous in this regard. The first sentence 
     states "UPDATE updates a master file..." which is not quite correct, as the
     master file is not updated.   Then the first dot point refers to values 
     being replaced "in the new active file."  I missed this on my first reading
     of the manual.  May I suggest the manual be changed to make it clear that 
     the master file is not actually updated and that the active file must be 
     saved to retain a permanent record of the updates?
     
OK,  I'll have a look at the documentation to see if it can be made clearer.

J'

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