Microsoft KB Archive/110480

= Table & Alias Names Not Always the Same in FoxPro for Mac =

Article ID: 110480

Article Last Modified on 10/15/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0b for Macintosh
 * Microsoft FoxPro 2.5b for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q110480



SUMMARY
In FoxPro for Windows and FoxPro for MS-DOS, the alias of a table is often the same as the name of the table. Therefore, many FoxPro commands and functions appear to work on the table name even though they actually work on the alias name. (These commands are listed below.) This can cause confusion for FoxPro for Macintosh users because alias and table names are sometimes different in FoxPro for Macintosh.

To verify a database's alias name in FoxPro for Macintosh, use the ALIAS function. For example: USE "Macintosh HD:Long Database Name.DBF" ? ALIAS The above program will print "LONG_DATAB" as the alias name.



MORE INFORMATION
FoxPro transforms Macintosh-like table names to Windows/MS-DOS-like aliases, with an underscore (_) substituted for the spaces allowed in Macintosh filenames. For example, in FoxPro for Macintosh, the table name "my table" would have the alias "my_table".

Several functions that use work area aliases work only on alias names as rendered by FoxPro. For example, "my table" has the alias "my_table"; thus, FLOCK("my_table") works, but FLOCK("my table") generates an error.

In addition to the underscore substitution for spaces, filenames longer than 10 characters are truncated to the first 10 characters.

The following is a list of FoxPro functions and commands that operate with alias names rather than table names:   ALIAS                         ORDER BOF                          RECCOUNT CDX                          RECNO DBF                          RECSIZE DELETED                      RELATION EOF                          RLOCK FCOUNT                       SEEK FIELD                        SELECT FILTER                       SET RELATION FSIZE                        SET SKIP FLOCK                        SKIP GO/GOTO                        SYS(14) JOIN                           SYS(2021) KEY                          TAG LOCK                         TARGET LUPDATE                      UNLOCK MDX                          USED NDX

Additional query words: vFoxMac FoxMac converted conversion naming substituted automatic

Keywords: KB110480

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