>>that's a very simple case of FTFM - then get back to us

ALan


LOL

I appreciate that statement, however maybe you could point the
direction to the actual manual itself :) I have all the
documentation on IBPhoenix and elsewhere and finding an actual
example code of the create table <table> external file <filespecs> is
not the easiest thing to do. I have looked in other forums and
webpages for the last 2 hours and only recently found an example that
illustrates the process, although incompletely. I have succesfully
done it, but not before exhaustive inspection on what it was doing
with the actual file itself. Its very very nice. It does no parsing
of any kind, and is not fixed length. Looks like it has the same
structure as a gdb file itself. I did have to learn how to do it by
trial and error.

So I appreciate where the comment is coming from, help myself a
little, but I would humbly ask that the experts in this forum
understand that detailed information is not easily obtained (even
from the manuals) and to have some mercy on the beginners here.

I am still hoping for the API to open itself up to me (specifically
the object browser), but thats highly unlikely. This looks like it
will work except for the fact that I have to dynamically create the
tables and the procedures. I notice that even after I drop the table
that a file lock still exists and prevents me from altering or
deleting the file. These files will pile up rather quickly and I
need to find a solution that will allow me to clear up
these "temporary" files. Any ideas?

Thanks for all your help!! :)