Compact & Audit Database

The internal processing of databases does not necessarily re-use the space occupied by records that have been deleted (particularly in master files such as the Job and Cost Code files). New records are always added to the end of the file. Therefore, over a period of time, it is possible a file may appear full but there could be gaps in the middle where records were deleted. Using this option consolidates the active data and frees up space.

This option effectively re-arranges all the active records so you must run the ‘Audit Pointers’ function after using this option. In addition you should not, in the normal course of events, use this option on the Job Transaction file – the cleardown processes will usually do this for you and running here could affect the transaction control numbers (see above).