Append From File Question

[sasa888]

Hi all, I am new to Visual FoxPro and I am reviewing someone's code right now. My issue is, I saw the following code and not quite sure if this is the piece to import data into a VFP table. Given the &gcDirFileName is the directory path where the text file located, does it mean the following code read line by line from the text file and import into the LdCont table? If so, how does the program know if it is delimited or another format? Please help!!


Select LdCont
use
use ldcont exclu
Append From &gcDirFileName TYPE SDF
GOTO TOP
BROWSE
pack

 

[JRB-Bldr]

gcDirFileName is a variable

The variable contains a text string representing a fully pathed file name - assumed to be a text file.

The APPEND FROM command will add the contents of the text file into the VFP data table ldcont

Yes each text line will become a new record in the data table.

The SDF option on the command tells the command to anticipate the data to arrive in a standardized format (hence using the option - Standardized Data Format)

Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr

 

[GriffMG]

TIP: If you want to know what that SDF file looks like, use ldcont yourself, and do a [copy to ... sdf] and look at the contents.

B-)

Good luck




Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi Sasa888,

Welcome to Visual FoxPro. Just to amplify Select LdCont JRB-Bldr's reply:

[blue]Select LdCont[/blue] Makes a table named ldCont the "current" table

[blue]use[/blue] Closes the current table

[blue]use ldcont exclu[/blue] Re-opens that same table; opens it for exclusive use (other users cannot access it)

[blue]Append From &gcDirFileName TYPE SDF[/blue] Copies data from a text file, the name of which is held in a variable named gcDirFielName

[blue]GOTO TOP[/blue] Goes to the first record in LdCont (the very first record in the table, not necessarily the first of the copied records).

[blue]BROWSE[/blue] Opens the table in a browse window

[blue]pack[/blue] Removes any deleted records from the table

The SDF in the APPEND command stands for System Data Format (not Standardized Data Format as JRB-Bldr suggested, but it doesn't really matter as everyone just uses the initials). Essentially, SDF means that each field in the text file occupies a fixed width, without any delimiters. FoxPro uses the field widths within the target table to determine where each field begins and ends.

Hope this is useful.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[JRB-Bldr]

Mike - not to be a nit-picker, but just to make certain that I have not been telling in-accuracies to people for years...

The VFP Help file does indeed define SDF with the phrase "System Data Format". (I have to admit that I didn't think to look there before now.)

However since SDF has meaning outside the VFP world especially when related to Importing and Exporting files, I went to the web to look for an industry-wide definition for SDF I find a variety of phrases (generally all meaning the same thing).

SDF Standard Data Format
SDF System Data Format
SDF Structured Data Format
SDF Simple Data Format

There were numerous others as well but those are the most prevalent ones relating to file formats.

Hey there was even
SDF Scottish Drug Forum

 

[Mike Lewis]

Fair comments, JRBBldr. I admit I just picked up what was in the Help file.

I like the idea of the drug forum. I wonder what they talk about there.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[DSummZZZ]

Like they say, that's the good thing about standards. There are so many to choose from.



-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[sasa888]

A Big Thank You to everyone!!!!