.TH blank "" "" "/rdb Command"
.PC "Replace all data in a record with spaces"
\fBblank < \fItableorlist\fR
.PP
.II "blank a row"
.II "row^blank out"
The command
.B blank
replaces with spaces every values in each record of
.IR tableorlist .
.PP
The command
.B update
uses
.B blank
when it updates a record.
.B update
temporarily replaces the record it is updating with a blank record.
This blank record serves as a record lock; this ensures
that other users cannot read
or update the record while it is being updated, but it leaves the
rest of the table available for use.
.PP
Please note that when you pull up a blank record,
it means that that record is being updated by someone else.
Come back to it later.
.SH Example
To blank out the data fields in table
.B maillist
and then
.B see
the result, you could type the following:
.DM
blank < maillist | see
.DE
.PP
This command produces the following output:
.DM
Number^I $
Name^I               $
Company^I          $
Street^I              $
City^I       $
State^I    $
ZIP^I     $
Phone^I              $
$
Number^I $
Name^I               $
Company^I             $
Street^I                            $
City^I       $
State^I            $
ZIP^I         $
Phone^I    $
.DE
.PP
Note the spaces between the tab (^I) and the dollar sign `$'
that indicates the end of the line.
The spaces replaced the
characters, including spaces, that were in the original records.
.PP
Note too that the column names are untouched, so that this
is a perfectly correct file as far as the
.B /rdb
commands are concerned, it just contains no data.
.SH "See Also"
.B
see,
update
.R