I sure thought it was Stan (the man) that gave me this idea originally
(circa 1974), but if he didn't then thanks to whoever did.- but, never the
less, I use it daily and have never found a problem with it.  I have the
approach coded into a FORTRAN program using HPCICOMMAND calls to accomplish
as well as using it in a command file. I'd be happy to share the code if
someone wants it.

Jack


                -----Original Message-----
                From:   John Pollard [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
<mailto:[mailto:[log in to unmask]]>
                Sent:   Friday, September 22, 2000 9:32 AM
                To:     [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
                Subject:        Re: circular files-build, read, write to

                I have 6.0 also and I tried the "two copy" approach and it
worked. Following
                the first copy I had a new file, but it had zero records
(the circular file
                had 603 records). Following the purge and the second copy,
however, I had a
                new flat file with 603 records. In my case, the blocking
factor of the
                circular file was 1 (one). Does this make any sense?