We removed the index on a file, which has been in use for about 20 years, as part of a System Maintenance.

When adding the index:

  Unkown Error, AX*LIVE*1*$PUBLIC*~DBTABLE**!CUSTOMER,S1

Removing the index and adding again produced the same error.

A new file was created and the records (Data and Dictionary) copied to the new file. Index was added to the new file but still the same error.

The Index field is also the Key field.

Index worked for a few days then caused problems when accessing records in the file or updating records.

The Index Rebuild option did not produce the same error.

Any suggestions?

You're holding your mouth wrong when you reindex. Try pursing your lips more, and tilting your head slightly sideways.

Or else stick to numbers and letters only in your data. The presence of nulls (see your example) and spaces and delimiters (char250+) and asterisks will lead to tears, eventually.

What version of OI are you using? Where does the error appear?

Prior to removing the index, when is the last time you rebuilt the indexes?

Eric's suggestion is plausible and one or more of your keys contain system delimiters. It would be worth doing a select/readnext on the table and checking each key for erroneous characters.

Another way is to write a symbolic which does the check for you, then returns a flag, then simply list the file by the flag

Thanks guys,

The problem was an unprintable character in one of the 40,000 keys.

Using the Symbolic to select non-numeric keys found it very quickly.

Deleting the corrupt key was not so easy but eventually deleted.

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