# Find records which are NOT in a descriptor ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum\ **Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Adabas, Adabas-Basics-on-Linux-Unix-Windows, Adabas-on-Windows-UNIX, Adabas-on-Linux\ **Created:** [February 14, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880 "2006-02-14T12:42:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Matthias1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@Matthias1](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Matthias1)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880/1 "2006-02-14T12:42:56Z")
Hello all! Here’s an excerpt of a file’s ADAFIN-statistics: ```auto Descriptor AA , Format: A , Options: None [...] Values: different: 38,122 total: 38,354 [...] Descriptor AB , Format: U , Options: NU [...] Values: different: 15 total: 38,349 ``` It is my understanding… … that this file got exactly 38354 records … that 5 records got a zero value in field AB and therefore they don’t appear in descriptor AB. My question: How can I read this 5 records without reading the whole file? At the moment; I think, it’s not possible, but maybe there is some unknown ADABAS/NATURAL-trick… Kind regards Matthias ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880/2 "2006-02-14T13:28:39Z")
You are right, it’s not possible. The only “trick” here would be to reload the file with AB not being NU, then you can explicitely read those 5 records. ---
**Author:** ![Matthias1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@Matthias1](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Matthias1)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880/3 "2006-02-14T21:22:08Z")
I thought, maybe it’s possible to create two retain-sets and link them with XOR or something like that. I dealt too much with SQL the past few weeks… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880/4 "2006-02-23T23:00:42Z")
Perform S1 command with H option to search all records with AA not equal blank. Perform S1 command with H option to search all records with AB not equal 0. Perform S8 command connecting the results of the two S1 commands with the NOT operator. This way you must read the complete index, but not the data records. Kind regards, Wolfgang ---
**Author:** ![Matthias1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@Matthias1](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Matthias1)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:30pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880/5 "2006-02-24T14:30:05Z")
Thanks! Your solution is working great! > [@Wolfgang Obmann](#): > > Perform S1 command with H option to search all records with AA not equal blank. To get all records of AA, I search all records with AA not equal blank OR equal blank… In Natural your solution would be: ```auto define data local 1 file28 view of file28 2 aa (A15) /* Options: DE 2 ab (N03) /* Options: DE,NU end-define * find-aa. find number file28 with aa eq " " or aa ne " " retain as 'all-aa' display *NUMBER(find-aa.) * find-ab. find number file28 with ab > 0 retain as 'all-ab' display *NUMBER(find-ab.) * find-not. find file28 with 'all-aa' and not 'all-ab' display file28 end-find display *NUMBER(find-not.) * release set 'all-aa' release set 'all-ab' * end ``` I was very close to this solution. But I only tried the operator XOR… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/find-records-which-are-not-in-a-descriptor/57880/6 "2021-04-02T14:38:55Z")