Re: Old Informix-4GL, vintage 1988

I have had this happen MANY times with old Informix running under DOS/Netware. Frequently when there is a power surge or something. If you CAN unload the file using dblink or some dbunload, so that you get an ASCII file. Chances are it won't let you. If it will, then unless it is an absolutely enormous file, bring it in in word processing. The bad record that is corrupting will probably be the first one. Delete it and resave as a text file. Then drop the table, reconstruct the table, and load everything back in. If it will NOT let you unload, it is probably an index on a date field or a serial. Change all your index fields to CHARACTER in ALTER TABLE. Then it should let you unload because there are pretty much no rules on valid data. Again, look at the ASCII file and delete the bad record. Delete table, reconstruct, and reload. Remember if you change date to character it will look weird in ASCII because it does the integer value. If you load it back in as DATE it will put it back in correct date format. If this doesn't work, let me know. MJOH