David asked: > I am trying to merge two data sets... I created a flag... > 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 [the default] > for everybody including those from the source. I expected > that ... the new members merged (imported) from the source > would retain the value of Y that I had set. Terry replied: > 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. > 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 thought it used to work correctly in either direction, > but it's been years since I've tested it. David, I also thought it worked the way that you expected and Terry stated! My on-line book has a separate chapter on Merging which focuses on what happens to the merging of custom TMG features. Its section on "Merging Data Sets" described merging Custom Flags as behaving exactly the way we all expected. However, since I still have old versions of TMG installed I tested this merging today in various earlier versions. The behavior we expected and described *was* the behavior in Version 7.04 (which is the last version where I tested this specific issue). Testing now shows that the behavior is different in Version 8.08, and the final Version 9.05 retains that different behavior. I have retested merging custom flags, and just updated its description in that section on "Merging Data Sets" of my on-line book so it now reflects both its old and new behavior since Version 8: http://www.mjh-nm.net/IMEXPORT.HTML#MergingDataSets In summary as Terry noted, as of Version 8 the only way to retain the old values from the sending dataset is to first create a flag of the same name in the receiving dataset. I agree with Terry and believe this is a bug whose changed behavior since Version 8 us beta testers did not catch. I have added a description of this unexpected behavior and its work-around in my on-line page of remaining outstanding bugs. http://www.mjh-nm.net/BUGS.HTML#B92 Hope this helps explain what you are seeing and how to get what you want, Michael