This Tech Tip describes a technique to copy data from the internal 4D database to an External Database. In particular this technique leverages two powerful features in 4D v12:

• External Databases
  
• SQL Export (aka SQL Dump)

Note that this technique assumes the internal and external table have the same structure. In other words the goal of such a technique would be to "archive" the internal data to an External Database. The internal data could later be deleted.

An overview of the process is as follows:

• Export the internal data using SQL EXPORT SELECTION.
  
• Switch to the external database using USE DATABASE.
  
• Import the data using SQL EXECUTE SCRIPT.

Here is a simple example:

// Export internal data. ALL RECORDS([Table_1]) SQL EXPORT SELECTION([Table_1];$exportPath_t) // Open External Database. Begin SQL    USE DATABASE DATAFILE :$externalDBPath_t; End SQL // The import script is called "Export.sql" and it's // created in a folder called "SQLExport" $importScript_t:=$exportPath_t+Folder separator+"SQLExport"\    +Folder separator+"Export.sql" // Import the data. SQL EXECUTE SCRIPT($importScript_t;SQL On error abort) // Don't forget to switch back to the internal database if needed. Begin SQL    USE DATABASE SQL_INTERNAL; End SQL