Microsoft KB Archive/115175

{| = Command and Function Differences Between dBASE and FoxPro =
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ID: Q115175

The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, version 2.6
 * Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, version 2.6

SUMMARY
The information below describes the command and function differences between dBASE and FoxPro. This information is also found in the "Switching from dBASE" topic in FoxPro 2.6 Help.

To go directly to this topic in FoxPro, choose dBASE Help from the Help menu.

MORE INFORMATION
Almost all of the hundreds of commands and functions in dBASE IV work exactly the same way in FoxPro. The degree of compatibility is extremely high, and even more so with dBASE IV 1.0 and 1.1. However, there are commands, functions, or keywords where dBASE and FoxPro differ.

@ ... GET

In FoxPro, the REQUIRED keyword in @ ... GET is ignored. APPEND FROM In FoxPro, the REINDEX keyword in APPEND FROM is ignored. APPEND FROM ARRAY In FoxPro, the REINDEX keyword in APPEND FROM ARRAY is ignored. APPEND FROM xxxx.txt TYPE DELIMITED While dBASE looks for the characters ", (quotation mark, followed by a   comma) in an appended ASCII text file, FoxPro looks only for the " (quotation mark). As a result, files containing these delimiters do not append correctly in any version of FoxPro. BARCOUNT BARCOUNT in dBASE calculates the number of bars of defined popups, regardless of whether or not the popup has been activated. BARCOUNT in FoxPro calculates the number of bars of active popups. If a popup has been defined, but not activated, BARCOUNT in FoxPro returns 0. BROWSE In FoxPro, the NOORGANIZE keyword in BROWSE is ignored. CHANGE In FoxPro, CHANGE always returns false (.F.). COMPLETED In FoxPro, COMPLETED always returns false (.F.). FCREATE and FOPEN In dBASE IV, the second parameter in the FCREATE and FOPEN functions can be "R" (read-only), "W" (write-only), "A" (append-   only), "RW" or "WR (read and write) or "RA" or "AR" (read and    append). FoxPro supports these file attributes. The following    tables list the FoxPro behavior for these dBASE parameters.

FCREATE dBASE      FoxPro Parameter  Behavior --

RW or WR   Creates a file with read and write privileges and sets the MS-DOS Archive attribute.

A          Creates a file with read and write privileges and sets the MS-DOS Archive attribute.

RA or AR   Creates a file with read and write privileges and sets the MS-DOS Archive attribute.

R          Creates a file with read only privileges and sets the MS-DOS Read-Only attribute.

FOPEN dBASE      FoxPro Parameter  Behavior --

RW or WR   Opens the file with read and write privileges and positions the file pointer at the beginning of the file.

A          Opens the file with read only privileges and positions the file pointer at the end of the file.

RA or AR   Opens the file with read and write privileges and positions the file pointer at the end of the file.

R          Opens the file with read only privileges and positions the file pointer at the beginning of the file. FLDLIST In dBASE, FLDLIST returns a field name followed by the -> operator and the table/.DBF alias. In FoxPro, FLDLIST returns a   field name followed by a period and the table/.DBF alias. ID ID in dBASE returns the name of the machine that dBASE is   running on. ID in FoxPro returns the name of the machine that FoxPro is running on and the number of the machine in the network. If no network is present, ID in FoxPro returns the machine name and 1. ON SELECTION POPUP In FoxPro, the BLANK keyword in ON SELECTION POPUP is ignored. RESET In FoxPro, RESET is ignored. RUN The dBASE RUN function is not supported in FoxPro. Use FoxPro's   RUN command instead. SET('BORDER') In FoxPro, the border characters are returned. In dBASE, SET('BORDER') returns ASCII values for the border characters. SET FIELDS In dBASE you can add /R to a field in the SET FIELDS command to   make it read-only. This switch is ignored in FoxPro 2.6. SET('FIELDS',1) When FIELDS is set to LOCAL and COMPATIBLE is set to FOXPLUS or   OFF, aliases are not returned with the fields names. SET MESSAGE In FoxPro, the AT clause in SET MESSAGE is ignored. USE In FoxPro, the NOSAVE and NOLOG keywords in USE are ignored. Additional reference words: FoxDos FoxWin 2.60 foxhelp.dbf foxhelp.hlp KBCategory: kbprg KBSubcategory: FxinteropDbase
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