DSXchange

Hi,
I am seeing some strange behavior from a hash file. I write a NAME and an associated value to a Hash file. The NAME is the Key. I try to retreive the value associated with that NAME from another job using the HashFileLookupUtility. It works fine for various values of NAME where I write to the HashFile and retreive it. but theres one NAME thats giving me problems lately.The NAME already exists and the associated column is getting updated alright. I can see it When I open the HashFile in NotePad, but its unable to retreive the value. Its returning a null. All other NAME values, its giving me the right result. Do I need to fix the hash file or something?
Its strange because I never has this problem before doing exactly the same thing on the same NAME.
Thank you.

Neo,

trim the Name field before you write in to the hash file. Also use the trim function, before looking up for the name.

HTH
Dhiraj

dhiraj wrote:Neo,

trim the Name field before you write in to the hash file. Also use the trim function, before looking up for the name.

HTH
Dhiraj

Hi Dhiraj,
I am actually doing a TRIM while writing and reading. Actually, the UtilityHashLookup routine returns a "RECORD NOT FOUND" string if it cant find the key value. I am getting a null instead. And I can retreive all other values except this one. And the particular NAME value is a simple string like all others. All others work fine. That is what is strange!

Using an external editor, determine whether this particular value contains any non-printing characters, such as Esc. You (as a human) won't be able to see them, but they can cause a lookup to fail.

ray.wurlod wrote:Using an external editor, determine whether this particular value contains any non-printing characters, such as Esc. You (as a human) won't be able to see them, but they can cause a lookup to fail.

As strange as it may sound I dont see anything unusual with this particular string compared to others in the file. It just wouldnt retreive a value just from that particular string. I even tried retreiving by cutting and pasting that string into my routine and it still gives a null. I would be interested to know that even if the file got corrupted, how it could have happened. I do a simple write and read from it and I dont see why a perfectly working file before, wouldn't work for a particular value now! I thought to err was human and that is the reason we have computers I guess I'll just try deleting the file and rewriting again. The data is not historical anyway.

I ran into another problem. I just deleted the file the usual way and not the clear.file method and now my job is not running as it says
""TheFileName" is already in your VOC file as a file definition record."
How do I fix this now and what is the best way to delete a hash file through administrator. I think CLEAR.FILE still keeps the file but removes the contents. What is the best way to delete all traces of the hash file?
Thanks,

NEO wrote:I ran into another problem. I just deleted the file the usual way and not the clear.file method and now my job is not running as it says
""TheFileName" is already in your VOC file as a file definition record."
How do I fix this now and what is the best way to delete a hash file through administrator. I think CLEAR.FILE still keeps the file but removes the contents. What is the best way to delete all traces of the hash file?
Thanks,

Fixed the problem. I had to do a
DELETE FROM VOC WHERE NAME='Hash File Name' from the administrator. Now my routine creates a new hash file and is also able to retreive it for the above string that was giving me problems. I guess for some reason my old hash file at the place where my string was got corrupted. Well, one of life's uncertainities!
Thanks.