I have a database with 2 unique keys: stickno and randid. The CHK file contains the following code for these fields:

stickno

KEY UNIQUE 1

RANGE 1 500

MUSTENTER

END

randid

KEY UNIQUE 2

RANGE 100 1699

MUSTENTER

AFTER ENTRY

IF (randid>899) and (randid<1300) THEN

HELP "randid must be 100-899 or 1300-1699" TYPE=WARNING

ENDIF

END

END

Despite the KEY UNIQUE commands, I found 2 records with stickno=290 and randid==227. I believe KEY UNIQUE was present in the CHK file prior to beginning data entry, but even if not, when attempting to open the REC file I should receive a warning alerting me to the duplicates. This doesn't happen when I keep the EIX file in the same directory as the database. After deleting the EIX file from the directory, when attempting to open the REC file I do get a warning alerting me to the duplicates. What information does the EIX file store? I've attached it in case you're able to determine where the error lies. I haven't attached the database because it contains data on real patients and I can't edit it without changing the EIX file.

Any insights would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Suzanna Vidmar Senior Research Officer Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute Royal Children's Hospital Flemington Road Parkville Victoria 3052 Australia

telephone: +61 3 9345 6372 facsimile: +61 3 9345 6000 email: suzanna.vidmar@mcri.edu.au www.mcri.edu.au http://www.mcri.edu.au/

______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________