Deletes a file from disk.

Caution
Exercise caution when using ERASE. Any file erased with this command cannot be retrieved. You are not warned before the file is erased, even if SET SAFETY is ON.

ERASE FileName | ? [RECYCLE]

Parameters

FileName

Specifies the file to be erased. Include the path with the file name if the file is on a different drive or directory from the current drive or directory.

FileName can contain wildcard characters such as * and ?, for example, to erase backup files with ERASE *.BAK. If FileName contains spaces, enclose the entire file name in quotes.

?

Displays the Delete dialog box, from which you can choose a file to erase.

RECYCLE

Specifies that the file is no't immediately deleted from disk, but rather placed in the Windows Recycle Bin.

Remarks

Example

In the following example, the structure of CUSTOMER.DBF and all records in which the country is USA are copied to a table named backup. The data in backup is then copied to a text file, temp, which is opened and then deleted when it is closed.

	Copy Code
CLOSE DATABASES OPEN DATABASE (HOME(2) + 'data\testdata') USE customer && Opens customer table COPY STRUCTURE TO backup USE backup APPEND FROM customer FOR country = 'USA' COPY TO temp TYPE DELIMITED WAIT WINDOW 'Press Esc to close and erase temp.txt' NOWAIT MODIFY FILE temp.txt NOEDIT ERASE temp.txt ? IIF(FILE('temp.txt'),'File not deleted','File deleted') USE ERASE backup.dbf

See Also