"Rudderow, Evan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Larry Boyd wrote:
>
>>Another interesting 'feature' that I've seen used, is the fact that the
>value of the item
>>you lock on does not need to exist.
>
><snip>
>
>Locking things that don't exist -- doesn't this start to fall under the
>topic of "IMAGE by spite"?
 
Larry is correct. When doing a DBPUT to a detail data set, one can lock at the
record level (DBLOCK mode 5 or 6) on a value that does not currently exist in
the detail. DBLOCK doesn't care if the value exists or not. It just verifies
that the value you are attempting to lock, is not already locked by another
process. By locking a non-existent value, you ensure that no other process will
use that value until your process has called DBUNLOCK. "IMAGE by spite"?...No,
I don't think so. It's more of an "IMAGE by design".
 
Best regards,
Steve Patrick
HP Database Expert Center