ACCESS Procedure Reference

DELETE Statement

Removes records, groups, or items from an existing access descriptor.

Optional statement
Applies to:	access descriptor
Interacts with:	UPDATE statement

Syntax
Details
Arguments
Examples

Syntax

DELETE|DEL numeric-list;

DELETE|DEL item-name <... item-name-n>;

Details

The DELETE statement deletes the specified record, group, or item from an access descriptor. You can specify as many records, groups, or items as you want in one DELETE statement. When you delete a group or record, all of the items in that group or record are deleted as well.

Note that if the first record of a descriptor is deleted, then the first item in the descriptor must still be a RECORD.

Arguments

The following arguments can appear in a DELETE statement. You can mix item names and quoted strings in the same DELETE statement, but you cannot mix index numbers and names. Referencing a list of index numbers is an efficient way to delete items like OCCURS clauses, which by definition are not unique.

numeric-list: is a list of index numbers, separated by logical operators, that represent the item's place in the access descriptor. You can obtain the index number of an item using the LIST statement described later in this section.
item-name: is the name of the IMS group, record, or item to be deleted. This field can also contain a quoted string.

Examples

The following are examples of DELETE statements:

DELETE 15 2 8 TO 12;       /* deletes a numeric list */
DELETE 1 TO 23 BY 2;       /* deletes a numeric list */
DELETE CITY STATE ZIP;     /* deletes by name        */
DELETE CITY 'FIRST-ORDER-DATE'; /* deletes a name and quoted string */

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