title: Use data from one .dbf as search string for another one
body: <p>Sorry, I don't even know the right words to use to ask this question. Please note that I am not official tech support, nor did I write any of the programs in question. I'm the guy that tries to fix things while waiting for the official tech support company to get through all the "Have you turned it off and on again" tickets before they get to ours. </p>
  
  <p>Our store's main program stores all it's patient data in a big pile of .DBFs. I want to delete a value called an IHI (Ihino) for all patients that have no recorded Date Of Birth (pbirthdate). </p>
  
  <p>Unfortunately, the patient.dbf that stores most of the patient data (including pbirthdate) is not the same one that stores the IHI value (Ihino in HIPatientExt.dbf). There is one common value between them. The patient.dbf has a value called pnumber, which corresponds with the ihipatno value in HIPatientExt.dbf (i.e. these numbers refer to the same patient).</p>
  
  <p>I have access to the database commands input. So using that, is there a way to clear/replace a value in one dbf from a search using data from another. I know that is probably worded poorly. To put it another way, let's say they were in the same .dbf, the command I'd run would be </p>
  
  <p><code>repl Ihino with "" for empty(pbirthdate)</code></p>
  
  <p>I figured that it may involve outputting a list of the involved pnumbers. I have gotten as far as using <code>copy to</code> to make a big .txt file that contains the pnumbers of all the patients that have an empty pbirthdate. But I have no idea how to use this massive list as part of the repl command. If that's even possible. </p>
  
  <p>Sorry for the airy nature of the question. I've just picked up VFP9 commands along the way that I've needed as I've needed them. And as most VFP tutorials are probably written on stone tablets, I'm hoping there is someone on here with some idea how to accomplish what I'm trying to do. </p>
  
  <p>Regards</p>
  
  <p>Lobsta</p>