we are using proiv v6 green screen, we have a great number of files that have shared field names, is there any way to rename the fields within a function so that a value doesn't get changed inadvertently.

Hi Paul,

you can create an alternate file definition in which you rename the fields and map them to the original file variables. 

in you proiv function refer to the renamed fields, and proiv will map them for you to the database.

wim 

thank you that will work, will this affect the existing functions that  still use the original file name.

one more question, can the alt file have a diff key seq.

are you on pro-isam or sql?

pro-isam

proisam works with a fixed key length. you can change.

If your file consists of 2 key fields (key1 'ABCD' and key2 'XYZ') you can create an alternate with Altkey2 and Altkey1, but then Altkey2 would contain 'ABC' and Altkey1 would contain 'DXYZ' (I would not advice this!)

You can also create an alternate with one key3 field, which contains 'ABCDXYZ'