Re:
>
> 1) Because this needs to be a non-zero-programming solution--it's in the
>    middle of an application on which I'm working.
> 2) Because it needs to be done by someone who doesn't have maintenance access
>    to the database.

> 3) Because the master dataset has more than one field in it.

that's a good one...the killer.

> 4) Because, if I'd needed a one-off solution, I'd've probably gone with
>    Query or Suprtool a long time ago.

The other three are things you can workaround, of course :)
(And, depending upon the number of entries to be deleted, probably faster
with Adager than QUERY or SUPRTOOL ... in fact, can QUERY/SUPRTOOL let
you do "find dataset.key (detail pathlength = 0)"?)

Plus, you left out the other killer (if appropriate):

5) need to be able to access database while this is being done.

Oh well, thought I had an easy solution for awhile :(

:)

SS
Stan Sieler                                           [log in to unmask]
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html          www.allegro.com/sieler