X-Git-Url: https://pintos-os.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fcombining.texi;h=da0a5ea999d522e2fbf399e42d6ac07e96374472;hb=1809d8a36b646c00093c7c2b51f41441f5441f12;hp=3b4eb902e049eeae669752b7a5cd2c6299d70b96;hpb=e8b26fb0d765310d4c7400c39465008f1bb8601d;p=pspp diff --git a/doc/combining.texi b/doc/combining.texi index 3b4eb902e0..da0a5ea999 100644 --- a/doc/combining.texi +++ b/doc/combining.texi @@ -58,9 +58,11 @@ This section describes the syntactical features in common among the @cmd{ADD FILES}, @cmd{MATCH FILES}, and @cmd{UPDATE} commands. The following sections describe details specific to each command. -Each of these commands reads two or more input files and combines -them. The command's output becomes the new active dataset. The input -files are not changed on disk. +Each of these commands reads two or more input files and combines them. +The command's output becomes the new active dataset. +None of the commands actually change the input files. +Therefore, if you want the changes to become permanent, you must explicitly +save them using an appropriate procedure or transformation (@pxref{System and Portable File IO}). The syntax of each command begins with a specification of the files to be read as input. For each input file, specify FILE with a system @@ -168,6 +170,9 @@ only in files that are not present for the current case are set to the system-missing value for numeric variables or spaces for string variables. +These commands may combine any number of files, limited only by the +machine's memory. + @node ADD FILES @section ADD FILES @vindex ADD FILES @@ -315,14 +320,14 @@ case in the master file: @itemize @bullet @item When a match is found, then the values of the variables present in the -transaction file replace those variable's values in the new active +transaction file replace those variables' values in the new active file. If there are matching cases in more than more transaction file, @pspp{} applies the replacements from the first transaction file, then from the second transaction file, and so on. Similarly, if a single transaction file has cases with duplicate @subcmd{BY} values, then those are applied in order to the master file. -When a variable in a transaction file has a missing value or a string +When a variable in a transaction file has a missing value or when a string variable's value is all blanks, that value is never used to update the master file.