FHSVLDT - Program for Validating Family File Pointers and Data

1. This single program performs three types of "validation" procedures: Pointer Validation, Data Validation, and Search for "Duplicate" records. Validation options appear as report options of the error report produced during the validation process. The reports are "PVLD" for Pointer Validation, "DVLD" for Data Validation, and "MDAT" for Matching (or Duplicate) Data.
2. Validation reports are not "printed" to the screen. Instead the program:
   • shows a count of grouped errors in the lower right part of screen
   • shows the text of Error Messages on the bottom line of the screen
   • Pauses after each error display. If the PGDN key is used to continue processing, the program will not pause after subsequent error displays until it is manually paused (e.g. by pressing Space Bar) and continued by pressing a key Other Than PGDN.
3. During the validation process, the ID# for the name record being processed is shown in reverse video display on the right side of the message line.
4. Validation Reports can be printed to printer or file. Error counts and messages are still shown on screen when output is directed to printer or file.
5. Error messages for the pointer and data validation reports are found as report Variables of the appropriate validation report. Variable names are of form: "EMxx" where "xx" is the Error Message number.
6. The Data Validation Report includes a preliminary section listing errors being checked (there are now 11 groups of errors) and both validation reports have a summary section at the end showing the number of errors of each type found. The validation report Variables: "ETyy", yy=01-11, provide the descriptions of error groups used in the report summary. Title lines of the "DVLD" report are used for printing the preliminary section of the Data Validation Report.
7. The pointer validation options include one for "Adjust Missing Death Date". This option requests that the program look for name records in which the Birth Year is >0 , the death date is zero and the age (to current date) is greater than a user specified maximum. If the program is permitted to make file updates, the death year will be changed to 9999, which the program recognises as a "don't know" value...the computed age for the person will then not appear in reports. For instance, you can have the program automatically change the death year from 0000 to 9999 if the age is greater than 150 years.
8. ID's for which errors are found can be saved in a SELECT.WRK file which can be read by the "Search" routine of the file update program for convenient examination/correction of error conditions by that program
9. The new "Search for Duplicate Data" uses an Index File which has been created using, as Key fields, the data fields that will be used for finding duplicate or matching records. The search process employs two "comparison groups" during the search, the object being to find records from one group which "match" records in the other group in the values of the comparison fields. Each comparison group can be: the full file, the records of a SELECT.WRK file or relationship file, or a range of ID numbers. "Duplicate" records from the first comparison group are marked as "primary" records and those from the second comparison group are marked as "secondary" records. The collection of ID's for matching records can be saved in a SELECT.WRK file, which can then be LOADed by the Search/Select/LIST program for printing detail lists of the records.