I need to delete a group of records based on any kind of list, internal or external link to record names.

I have a database with the actual graphics I'm using in one publication. This graphics vary every months so I get a new list of them and then I want to eliminate those records I'm not using from the new DB. Records and graphics have the same name or IDs.

Thank you

Pardon my flippancy, but what are you talking about? What do you mean my "any kind of list"???

You can perform a find and then delete the found set, if that's what you want to do.

OK... now try to find 500 records for deletion one by one and you will understand me.

I need to delete a list of records.

Each record you need to delete needs to be found separately? Or is there a find you can do that will find multiple records that need to be deleted?

Also, how do you keep track of what records you have used and what records you haven't used?

Comparing the last month pictures folder with this month pictures I can get a list of pictures not used. Now I need to delete all these pictures (=records) from my database. How can I do it with one click?

So you have a record for every picture and a field to indicate which month the picture was received or used in?

How are your months entered? Do you have the month names(January, February, etc.) or a date(3/5/2002)?

You mentioned that you compare the pictures from both months to determine whether or not they were used. How do you determine this? Is there a field that indicates that the pictures were used, or when they were used? Or is a picture listed under both months if it was used?

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

clippermedia, is your problem:

1. you don't know how to find the records that need to be deleted? Or

2. once you've found them, you don't know how to delete them?

If the problem is 1. (the find), then we need more info.

If the problem is 2., it's easy. Just use the Delete All Records or Delete Found Records command (in the Records menu).

Uhm... OK, It doesn't matter how was obtained the list of records but if you insist...

I have a folder with 500 pictures that were used in my actual magazine number and a database with all these pictures registered with their names in one field.

Next month 200 of these pictures will be deleted from the magazine.

How can I know witch pictures are used now? easy: I collect all pictures from QuarkXpress in a new folder and then I copy the list of files to ListCompare (a freeware application) and compare it with the list of files of the last month. Now I have the list of files not used this month, OK?

Now I need to delete the records in the database who make reference to this files by the field "picture name" to maintain the database actualized.

How can I do it with one click? A find and delete loop or something...? How can I make a find request of the 200 records of my list?

(My english is not so good, I know)

As I understand it, you end up with a list of the 200 file names to be deleted in your ListCompare software. Is it possible to save this list as a text file? If so, you could make a little FM database with one field, the file name, and import this list into it. Then set up a relationship based on file name with your main db. You should be able to run a Find in the main db to find a set of all file names that also exist in the new db, then delete them. Whenever you need to do this, delete all records from the new db & import the list, then run your find again in the main db.

You could automate this process down to one or two button clicks fairly easily.

Hey, I have the solution! and is very simple:

I only need to automate the creation of 200 new records with the field "picture name" populated from my list and then I just need to perform a find request of duplicated records in this field and delete the founded records.

Thank you all for your attention.