You can most certainly lookup/collate on words etc. They take 'inputrange' for the key in detail and master, which can be words and substring etc. When the files are sorted already, collate should do.
When you have detail and master come out of collate, you combine them into one record and can use pick to compare the two fields. You can use specs to build the composite of detail and master. But I would discourage to try and make specs compare two streams. At this pace, you're likely beyond the level of plumbing for Kris' class :-) On 4 August 2014 22:32, Miguel Soltero Diaz <mig...@live.com> wrote: > Hi guys, > Once again need some guidance on what to do. > > Have a couple of files: > Master is variable length with variable start position & key length. Key > is the second word of the record. > Detail is fixed length (of course) with variable length key. > Both files are sorted > 1) I need to match both files based on the key. > Thought about using Collate or Lookup but failed to find the parameters to > specify the word separator character. Also couldn't find the way to specify > a variable length on the key. > Question. Is there a way to do this with Lookup or Collate? Or what should > I use instead? > > 2) The eight word of the Master record there is a date (might be missing) > that I need to compare with the one from the Detail file. Take the greatest > one to update the one in the master. I am thinking on using Pick for the > compare. Although not sure I can use Pick to compare fields from different > files. SPECS might be? > > Any idea how I can solve this? > Yes, I know... I should be taking that selfstudy course Kris suggested > first. :) > Thanks guys... > > > Miguel >
