Sonk:
Sorry, I didn misunderstand.
Anyway, 4GL is very brain-dead when dealing with the Unix OS. You could do something like this:
main
run "test -r zz.4gl; echo $? > r.file"
end main
If the file exists, a value of zero is redirected to r.file. If it doesn't exist, a non-zero value redirects to r.file.
You then can do something like this:
load from r.file insert into some_table_with_one_smallint_column
and select what is in the table. This is a real kludge.
In the past, I developed "C" functions callable by 4GL. Check out this FAQ:
forum179
One of the function examples does exactly what you ask. Of course, there are issues with introducing "C" in your 4GL. This FAQ discusses those issues.
Regards,
Ed