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The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

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  Argument
 
    file_variable    Typed, untyped, or text file; already assigned
 
  Description
 
    The Erase procedure removes an existing file of any type from a
    disk directory. A prior call to Assign must associate file_variable
    with an existing external file. Erase works the same as the DOS
    command DEL or its synonym ERASE.
 
    The file should be closed. Although Erase succeeds if the file is
    open, it does not close the file. Erasing open files leaves lost
    clusters on the disk. Also, the DOS file handle is not released
    and remains unavailable for the rest of the program.
 
    If no file exists with the name assigned to file_variable, an I/O
    error occurs.
 
    To prevent a program from halting with a run-time error when an I/O
    error occurs, turn off I/O checking with {$I-} and check the return
    value of the IOResult function.