Microsoft KB Archive/122863

{| = How to Use SET ALTERNATE TO Instead of Low-Level I/O =
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ID: Q122863

2.5x 2.60 2.60a | 2.5x 2.60 2.60a | 2.5x 2.60 2.60a

WINDOWS        | MS-DOS          | MACINTOSH The information in this article applies to:
 * Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.5, 2.5a, 2.5b, 2.6, 2.6a
 * Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, versions 2.5, 2.5a, 2.5b, 2.6, 2.6a
 * Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, versions 2.5b, 2.5c, 2.6, 2.6a

SUMMARY
You can use the SET ALTERNATE TO command to create ASCII text files instead of using FoxPro's low-level file input/output (i/o) commands.

MORE INFORMATION
There is no code example in the Help file or the "FoxPro Language Reference" that shows you how to use the SET ALTERNATE TO command. This article gives a basic code example that demonstrates how to use the SET ALTERNATE TO command to create an ASCII text file.

* BEGINNING OF CODE USE customer           && Open the customer database. This && database can be found in the Tutorial && subdirectory in the FoxPro directory.

SET CONSOLE OFF        && Do not echo information to the screen && when using question marks.

SET ALTERNATE TO temp  && Output will be sent to file TEMP.TXT.

SET ALTERNATE ON       && From this point on, using ? will write && information to the file TEMP.TXT.

* Write the following information to the file. ?'THIS IS TEST ONE.' ?cno x="THIS IS TEST TWO." ?x

SET ALTERNATE OFF    && Question marks output will now output && to the screen instead of the file, && which is the default.

SET ALTERNATE TO     && Closes the file. SET CONSOLE ON       && Turn console on to resume normal screen output && echoed to the screen.

USE                  && Close the customer database. MODIFY FILE TEMP.TXT && Open the output file TEMP.TXT, so it can && viewed. * END OF CODE At this point, the text file contains three lines: THIS IS TEST ONE.  THIS IS TEST TWO.

Additional reference words: FoxWin FoxDos FoxMac 2.50 2.50a 2.50b 2.50c 2.60 2.60a KBCategory: KBSubcategory: FxprgGeneral

Keywords         : kbcode FxprgGeneral Version          : 2.5x 2.60 2.60a | 2.5x 2.60 2.60 Platform         : MACINTOSH MS-DOS WINDOWS
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