Re: SQL Mass Delete Vs. READ/DELETE

["Alan Campin" <Alan.Campin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<snip>
Otherwise it will not matter that much.
Both methods will have to do somekind of select and will consume
comparable totals of resources.
</snip>

I would disagree strongly with this statement. Using a loop with an
update file means that each record is read one record at a time, locked,
returned to the program, delete issued or locked must be released and
then repeated again. 

Nothing takes more resources on an AS/400 than logical I/O and
especially when you have no buffering. 

Huge amount of overhead. 

With SQL all of this occurs at the OS level and the OS is only going to
bring in records it needs, not the whole table.

Reading every record in was bad code before SQL and still is. 

SQL just makes it simple.