Epi Info™ User Guide

Analysis Commands: DELETE FILES/TABLES

Description
This command deletes files, tables, and forms.

Syntax
DELETE filename | wildcard {RUNSILENT}
DELETE TABLES tablename | filename:tablename {RUNSILENT | SAVEDATA}

Comments
Delete file specifies explicitly or implicitly (via wildcards) files to be deleted. If no files are specified, or if some of the specified files cannot be deleted, a message is produced unless RUNSILENT is specified. Wildcards are not permitted in the suffix.

Delete table specifies a table to be deleted. If the table does not exist or cannot be deleted, a message is produced unless RUNSILENT is specified. Unless RUNSILENT is specified, a confirmatory message is displayed prior to deletion.

To delete tables with spaces in their names, specify both the file and the table even if the table is in the current project. The table must be enclosed in single quotes. You can read a table with a space in its name, delete it, causing errors during subsequent procedures. To delete a table with space in its name, specify the database even if the table is in the current database.

DELETE TABLES will not delete, and produce a message if any of the specified tables are data, grid, or program. Code tables are deleted only if they are not referenced by any view.

SAVEDATA does not delete the data tables, but removes the RECSTATUS property from the table.

Space is not reclaimed until the Compact utility is run.

Analysis will not delete the current project MDB or any table in use by the current form.

Example

DELETE TABLES Backup2005