Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!elroy!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: dBase question
Summary: Don't use LOCATE
Keywords: sequential seek
Message-ID: <49@dbase.UUCP>
Date: 10 Apr 89 20:43:40 GMT
References: <6666@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Organization: Ashton Tate Devlopment Center Glendale, Calif.
Lines: 26

In article <6666@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>, mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes:
> I hate to ask questions specific to dBase III+, but I need a quick 
> answer.
> 
> LOCATE FOR .t.       && Just point to the first record to initialize locate
> SEEK data-to-be-found  && To do a quick move to the records that I want
> ...processing...
> CONTINUE             && To advance to the next record as per the indexed order
> 
> Can anyone tell me if this is a good idea?  If not, how would you go about
> this?

No, this is not a good idea.  LOCATE/CONTINUE incurs unecessary overhead
when all you need is:

SEEK data-to-be-found	&& To move to the first record you want
...processing...
SKIP			&& To advance to the next record in index order

When you SET ORDER to a different database, the meaning of GOTO TOP and
SKIP, in particular, is altered to reflect the new ordering.  In other
words, it does want you want without messing with LOCATE/CONTINUE.

Hope it helps.

/alastair/