.TH compresss "" "" "/rdb Command"
.PC "Squeeze out all leading and trailing blanks"
\fBcompresss [-b] < \fItableorlist\fR
.PP
.II "table^compress"
.II "compress table"
The command
.B compresss
removes all leading and trailing blanks from every column or field in
.IR tableorlist .
You an use it to save disk space.
.PP
Please note that the name \fBcompresss\fR is not a typographical error.
The command is spelled in this way to avoid collision with the
COHERENT command
.BR compress ,
which behaves very differently from
.BR compresss .
.PP
.B compresss
is almost the opposite of the command
.BR justify .
Your files are not as pretty when compressed as they are when
justified, but they are smaller \(em
usually one third the size or less.
Therefore, they take less disk space and are much faster to process;
after all,
most of the time used to execute data-base programs consists
of moving data from the disk to the memory and, sometimes, back to
the disk.
.PP
Multiple blanks that separate words are left alone.
.SH Options
.B compresss
recognizes the following option:
.IP \fB\-b\fR
Drop blank lines.
Don't use this option with list files!
.SH Example
For example, consider table
.BR oldjournal ,
which is as follows:
.DM
Date     Account   Debit   Credit   Description
------   -------   -----   ------   -----------
890102   101       25000            cash from loan
890102   211.1              25000   loan number #378-14 Bank Amerigold
890103   150.1     10000            test equipment from Zarkoff
890103   101        5000            cash payment
890103   211.2               5000   note payable to Zarkoff Equipment
890104   130       30000            inventory - parts from CCPSC
890104   201.1              15000   accounts payable to CCPSC
890104   101       15000            cash payment to CCPSC for parts
.DE
.PP
After we run the command
.DM
	compresss <old.journal | see
.DE
.PP
.B old.journal
has no extra spaces.
We prove this by piping the output to the
.B /rdb
command
.BR see ,
which displays the following output:
.DM
Date^IAccount^IDebit^ICredit^IDescription$
----^I-------^I-----^I------^I-----------$
890102^I101^I25000^I^Icash from loan$
890102^I211.1^I^I25000^Iloan number #378-14 Bank Amerigold$
890103^I150.1^I10000^I^Itest equipment from Zarkoff$
890103^I101^I^I5000^Icash payment$
890103^I211.2^I^I5000^Inote payable to Zarkoff Equipment$
890104^I130^I30000^I^Iinventory - parts from CCPSC$
890104^I201.1^I^I15000^Iaccounts payable to CCPSC$
890104^I101^I^I15000^Icash payment to CCPSC for parts$
.DE
.PP
Note that
.B see
turns all of the tabs into \fB^I\fR
and puts a dollar sign `$' at the end of each row to show us that
there are no spaces at the end.
.SH "See Also"
.B
justify,
rmblank
.R
.SH Notes
Do not confuse this command with the COHERENT system's command
.BR compress ,
which produces binary output that cannot be read by any
.B /rdb
command.