FP Table Compatibility For VFP?

[IForgot]

Now that it is LONG OVERDUE, I am considering taking the leap towards VFP.

I have heard that if FP tables are opened by VFP, they are forever changed (possibly from 16 bit to 32 bit?) in such a manner that they are no longer compatible with FP (non-visual).

My applications are supplementary to the native FPD application and MUST NOT change the original table format/structure. Therefore as I design new VFP applications, I need to know what is involved to ENSURE that they will not change the original table structure/format. In some instances my applications change the original table data and in others they do not.

Your advice would be greatly helpful.

Thanks,
I_Forgot

 

[xBaseDude]

As long as you do not modify or reindex a 26 table under Visual Fox, you should be fine.

Of course if it's mission critical stuff...copy off a few 26 dbfs that you can afford to lose, and play with them...open in vfp...close...open...in 26 close etc..etc..

And as Aunt Tillie always sez..."Be sure to have a good back-up!"

HTH - Wayne

 

[ramani]

Hi,
Dont forget to add
SET COMPATIBLE ON
or
SET COMPATIBLE DB4
This can be issued along with the other SET commands.


ramani
(Subramanian.G),FoxAcc, ramani_g@yahoo.com

 

[danceman]

another thing to concider:
The Code Page dialog box allows you to specify a code page for tables created in earlier FoxPro versions and other products that create Visual FoxPro tables. The table is marked with the code page you choose.
SET CPDIALOG ON | OFF

Specifies whether the Code Page dialog box is displayed when a table is opened.

Attitude is Everything

 

[fatboy2]

Ah danceman, that was exactly the the command I had been looking for...

 

[wgcs]

The only SET COMPATIBLE command that affects table structure is SET COMPATIBLE [PROMPT | NOPROMPT], and this only affects dBase tables, not earlier FP Dos tables.

There is no problem opening existing FoxPro Dos tables in VFP. The codepage adjustment will happen (do SET CPDIALOG OFF to keep it from bothering the user about it), but the tables will still be readable perfectly fine in FP Dos.

The only thing that would make the tables unreadable in FP Dos is if you add them to a VFP database container. This puts stuff in the header (pointing back to the .DBC file) that isn't recognized by older FP dos versions. This does NOT happen automatically, though: you'd have to issue "ADD TABLE tablename" (while a database is open) for this to happen.

You can even create FoxPro Dos 2.6 compatible tables in VFP by issuing "COPY TO tablename TYPE FOX2X", "USE tablename" after creating a new table in VFP (though it sounds like this isn't something you need to do.)