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A HOLD file is valuable when you want to do the following:

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HOLD files can be created for immediate use and saved temporarily or they can be stored for future and repeated use. This gives you the flexibility to use and store HOLD files, as needed, based on how you want to use the files that you create.

Creating Temporary HOLD Files 

For the scenario in this documentation we created a report that joined 2 tables: 1) REC_STUDENT_TERM_DIM and 2) REC_ACAD_STRUCTURE_DIM.  We filtered on the academic career to only look at UGRD students, then we created a dynamic parameter filter for the academic program, plan, and the term.
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1. Navigate to your saved report and right-click.  

2. From the right-click menu, select Edit With.., and then click InfoAssist.
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3. Click File from the Format group of the Home tab on the ribbon.
     
   
   
4. From the Temporary hold dialog box, notice the options to rename the file, modify the file format, as well as options to select a desired location when saving. 
   Image RemovedClick the file type dropdown to modify the file format to Focus(*.foc).
   Image Removedconfirm Temporary is selected above the left navigation pane. 
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5. Enter text into the Title field.
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6. Confirm Binary (*.ftm) is the selected file format. 
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7. Once a file name and file format is identified, click Save.  The Temporary File dialog box will close.

8. Notice how this changes the format layout of your the work area and the different options that are now available. The PRINT/SUM work area and the SORT work area are now gone and the Files section appears in their place. Also note the “Create Report” drop down box at the screen bottom center. Opening that will enable working with the held data file.
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9. The output from the first query has been held in the filename provided and now that file appears as our source for report, file, or chart creation. The first query shows up in the QUERY block to the left side, listed under files. If you wish to navigate back to the first query that created the hold file highlight it and click Edit.
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10. Expand the hold file to display the fields that you held by clicking on the plus signs to the left of the file name and then to the left of SEG01. SEG01 is the temporary name given to the file by WebFOCUS. Notice the appearance of the field called FOCLIST. That is an internal index created by WebFOCUS and used as a key field and also to differentiate like records in this case.
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11. The output created from the hold file can be format as report output or sent to another hold file for further processing.changes. You should now see a Query pane (top center) as well the Create Report function (bottom right). 
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12. Note the hold file has been created - see the name in the Query pane. 
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13. Click Create Report (bottom right), to use the Hold file to create a report to join the hold file to another UC_SADM data table. 
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14. Notice the workspace changes again. The system assumes you want to create a report using data from that Hold File. 
15. To join the Hold file to another report, click the Data tab and then click Join. 
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16. Notice the hold file displays in the join dialog box. 
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17. Click the Add New dropdown and then click Existing.
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18. For our scenario, navigate rec_student_groups_dim from the dialog box that displays. 
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19. Click Open.  
20. Notice a second table displays in the Join dialog box.  
21. Join the the tables together.  Refer to the Basic Table Joins article for more instruction, as desired. 
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22. Click OK.  

23. Now create the report, pulling in fields from the HOLD file, as well as from the additional table that we just added. 

24. Fields are typically added under the By header, within the Query pane.
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25. As desired, add filters to mirror the filters from the hold file to maintain the same subset of data that exists in the hold file. 

26. Right-click on a variable under the By heading within the Query pane, select Filter Value...
27. Double-click Value, from the WHERE statement, and click the Value dropdown
28. Identify a Type - Field. 
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29. Click to expand the Hold File Name - Student Prog Plan.
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30. Once expanded, select the field name from the hold file. 
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31. Click OK.
32. Repeat these steps to add additional filters for the remaining filters that existed in the hold file.  

33. Add new filters, specific to the new table that was just joined, as appropriate.  Refer to the Filtering a Report documentation for additional instruction.  
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34. Click OK to confirm.  
35. Click Run to view the output of the report.  
36. Complete the info within the Parameters dialog box.  
37. Check Run in a new window, as desired. 
38. Click Run. 
39. Review the output. 
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