Microsoft KB Archive/146224

= HOWTO: Use SQL Pass Through to Connect to ASCII Text Files =

Article ID: 146224

Article Last Modified on 3/14/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0b Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Data Access Components 2.5

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This article was previously published under Q146224



SUMMARY
This article shows by example how to use Visual FoxPro and ODBC to access data that resides in ASCII text files.



MORE INFORMATION
For Visual FoxPro 3.0b, the ODBC drivers for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 3.1x are included with the product. For Visual FoxPro 3.0, ODBC drivers for Windows NT and Windows 3.1x are included. The ODBC drivers for Visual FoxPro 3.0 and Windows 95 are available as an Application Note titled "Microsoft ODBC Drivers for 32-Bit Programs" (GE1263).

Step-by-Step Example
This example demonstrates how to connect to a text file by using ODBC from Visual FoxPro.

  Create a comma-delimited text file for use as the data source for the ODBC driver by typing each of the following commands in the Command window: SET DEFAULT TO home+"samples\data" USE customer COPY TO customer.csv DELIMITED && Creates comma-delimited Customer file USE  Set up a Text File data source. In Windows 3.1x, do this through the ODBC Administrator in the Visual FoxPro program group or by using the ODBC icon in the Windows Control Panel. In Windows 95, do this through the 32 ODBC Administrator located in the ODBC program group or the Control Panel. In Windows NT, do this through the 32 ODBC Administrator in the Visual FoxPro program group or the ODBC icon in Control Panel. Use the following steps to set up a Data Source for the Visual FoxPro table saved as a comma-delimited file in Step 1:  Open the ODBC or 32 Bit ODBC Administrator icon. From the Add list, select Microsoft Text Driver, and click OK. The ODBC Text Setup dialog box will appear. Type FoxPro Text Test in the Data Source Name, and then click the Select Directory button. Select the Vfp\Samples\Data directory, and click OK.</li> Click the Options button, and then click the Define Format button.</li> In the Define Text Format dialog box, select the Customer.csv file.</li> Click the Guess button to create a Data Type, Name, and Width for each column of the selected file. Select each column, starting with F1, from the list. For each item in the list with a Data Type of Char, change the Width from 255 to the correct column width (if known). If the correct column width is not known, set each to 254 (the value used for the purposes of this example). Either way, as each column width is set, click Modify. The column width for each Char column must be set to a value less than 255 to enable the column to appear in Visual FoxPro as Character rather than Memo data.</li> When you finish, click OK in the Define Text Format dialog box, and then click OK in the OCBC Text Setup dialog box. Then click Close in the Data Sources dialog.</li></ol> </li>  Place the following code in a program (.prg) file that you will run to allow connection to the "FoxPro Text Test" data source. * Start of Program to connect to "FoxPro Text Test" Data Source

LOCAL lcSource, lnConHand, lnSQLRes

* Set initial variable values STORE 0 TO lnConHand, lnSQLRes lcSource = "FoxPro Text test" && Text Data Source Name from ODBC Dialog

* Connect to Text Data Source WAIT Window "Attempting connection ..." NOWAIT lnConHand = SQLCONNECT(lcSource) IF lnConHand > 0 WAIT Window ; "Connected to Text File Driver - Handle:" ; + STR(lnConHand,2,0) TIMEOUT 2 ELSE WAIT Window ; "Unable to connect to Text File ..." TIMEOUT 2 ENDIF

* Bring data into cursor called CustText IF lnConHand>0 lnSQLRes=SQLEXEC(lnConHand, "SELECT * FROM Customer.csv","CustText") BROWSE NOWAIT lnSQLRes=SQLDISCONNECT(lnConHand) && Remove to leave connection open ENDIF

* End of program </li></ol>