Behavior change for empty FIELDS list
- Last Updated: February 9, 2026
- 1 minute read
- OpenEdge
- Version 12.8
- Documentation
Prior to Release 12.0 specifying an empty FIELDS list (FIELDS()) during record
retrieval would return the entire record. Now in 12.0 an empty FIELDS list returns no fields. However the ROWID value for a specified
record is available using the ROWID function. To
revert to the previous behavior of returning all fields, remove the FIELDS() option from the record phrase so that no field
list is specified. A FIELDS list can be added to a
FOR, DO
PRESELECT, REPEAT PRESELECT, or DEFINE QUERY statement. To mitigate runtime errors related
to field lists you can use the -rereadfields or
-fldisable startup parameters.
For more information about the record phrase, see Record phrase.
For more information about the -rereadfields and -fldisable startup
parameters, see -rereadfields and -fldisable.