I am trying to merge two data sets. I want to label the source with a flag so that I can easily identify all its members in the target. I created a flag, "source_data" with the default values (?,N,Y) in the source data set and set its value to Y. This flag does not exist in the target. When I merge the source into the target the value of the flag is set to ? for everybody including those from the source. I expected that the old target members would have ? but that the new members merged (imported) from the source would retain the value of Y that I had set. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? I have researched the behavior in Terry Riegel's tips and in the TMG archive and it seems as though what I expect should work. I am using TMG9.05.

On 8/1/2015 10:06 PM, David via wrote: > I am trying to merge two data sets. I want to label the source with a > flag so that I can easily identify all its members in the target. I > created a flag, "source_data" with the default values (?,N,Y) in the > source data set and set its value to Y. This flag does not exist in the > target. When I merge the source into the target the value of the flag > is set to ? for everybody including those from the source. I expected > that the old target members would have ? but that the new members merged > (imported) from the source would retain the value of Y that I had set. David, My apologies. I hate it when people respond with what they think the questions is rather than understanding what it actually is, and that's exactly what I did last night. I shouldn't reply late at night. :-( You are right - when you merge data sets custom flags from one of the data sets should retain the value previously set for those people from that data set, and be set to the default for those in the other data set. But you said that's not what you see. I've not tested this in ages, and didn't think there were any changes in this area in recent versions. What I find when I test now is that is works correctly if the custom Flag is in the receiving data set, but it does not when the custom flag is in the sending data set. I think this later case is what you found. I thought it used to work correctly in either direction, but it's been years since I've tested it. That's an unfortunate bug since it limits what you can do with flags when merging. If there is only one custom flag involved you can work around it by controlling the direction of the merge , but that means you lose control of the re-numbering. Terry