Changing their placeholder string form ??? to @@@ probably fixes the search
problem, if one really wanted to search one of these numbers (or one became
part of a select list to be subsequently searched). However it still creates
a problem when it comes to doing a Family Search (FSEARCH on STN).
When you conduct a family search you select the PN, AP and PRN, and use these
as search terms. If you did a family search on a record (or answer set
containing a record) with one of these "generic" priority application numbers
you end up generating an answer set with ALL the records with these "generic"
numbers.
The same thing can happen in WPI with some older records containing a string
of zeros in an application (or priority app) number field. A family search
blows up.
If you need to use a "place holder" could you create one with a unique string,
like @@@, with a serial number appended. This way they are marked as being a
place holder number only, but each one is different because of the serial
number, eg @@@00001, @@@00002.
Does this make any sense??
Kerry Stanley
Chemical Abstracts Service (my thoughts only)
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>Darlene wrote:
It has been brought to our attention that some IFI records in the
CLAIMS database contain priority numbers with the string "???". We
We have identified all records having the "???" in the priority field,
and intend to replace the "???" with "@@@". If anyone knows of a
potential problem with using these characters, or if another
substitution would be more useful, we would appreciate your comments.
Records with the "???" will be replaced in the CLAIMS 1995 reload,
which IFI will process in May 1996.