Thought the list was to add to our knowledge and share ideas

Maybe no wants to hear this but I do not understand folks who are so smart that they must put someone down for asking a question. If you think it is a dumb question, just DO NOT RESPOND. I don't know where these folks got their knowledge. (The ones who know so much that they can get on to someone for asking questions) They must have been both smart, I'm sure no one gave them any pointers, or helped them in any way because they don't like for anyone to bother them. Surely someone who has received help before wouldn't might even seeing someone who hasn't reached their "Smartness" ask some pretty important questions to the person asking the question. One of the first questions I asked someone when I saw the Top of the screen in Informix was "How to I send a command from the $". Therefore it is not a dumb question to me. And, of course, I was told it wasn't possible. Most people that have worked with data processing or word processing for any length of time know the actions they want to take. Sometimes - just getting started is hard. Sometimes you don't know to look in Appendix I. Sometimes Appendix I doesn't have a sample, and if it does, it might not show what you need it to show. My example may be dumb. Maybe I shouldn't show my ignorance to all those folks who know so much. But for those who it might give an idea of how to do their stuff, here goes. # Shell Script program that can be run at the $ prompt as an example # of what can be done from outside of informix echo "Enter the Month for the Report " echo " Months 1 - 12: \\c " read monofrpt nothing="" if [ "$monofrpt" = "$nothing" ] then echo "Must have a month 1 thru 12 for the report to run properly..." exit else isql - - <<! database person; drop table tp; create table tp ( t_ssn char(9), t_employee char(30), t_dept char(5), t_title char(21), t_dob date ); insert into tp select distinct pers.ssn t_ssn, pers.employee t_employee, dept t_dept, title t_title, pers.dob t_dob from pers where (month(pers.dob) = $monofrpt);! echo "" echo "Finished Preliminary request..." date fi Cheryl Gross Red River Army Depot cheryl@redriverad-emh1.army.mil (903) 334-3518