Find string anywhere in dbf tables

[khsaunderson]

Hi

I'm migrating data from an old dbf database and need to only migrate certain info. I'm looking for a specific string, so that I migrate the info from the correct table. Rather than searching through every table (over 200 of them), is there any way I can use SQL to find the string in the tables. I have a T-SQL script that I've used on MS SQL Server, but it doesn't seem to want to work on the dbf tables.

Does anyone knwo of a little trick I can use to find the string? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[JCreamerII]

The AT command is used in dbase to test a field for a specific string. But it is field specific. You could right a routine that would check every field for this value if needed. But you appear to need this to happen outside that environment. If that is the case there may be a better forum to post this question.

Jim C.

 

[dbMark]

Perhaps you could use a search program such as AgentRansack (a free version) which can locate the text string in any file, then just scan those tables for matching records.

 

[dbMark]

Once you determine which tables contain the text strings, you can find the record numbers (or do more by modifying code):

DO ScanFlds WITH "MySearchText", "C:\data\filename.dbf"

PROCEDURE ScanFlds
PARAMETER cSrchText, cPathName
SET TALK OFF
SET EXCLUSIVE OFF
USE (cPathName) NOUPDATE
* using DO WHILE since sometimes SCAN fails
* subtle bug - not sure if limited to dBase for DOS version 5
DO WHILE .NOT. EOF()
   lRecFound = .F.
   FOR xFld = 1 TO FLDCOUNT()
      cFld = FIELD(xFld)
    * If you want to ignore case
    * IF TYPE(cFld) = "C" .AND. UPPER(cSrchText) $ UPPER(EVALUATE(cFld))
      IF TYPE(cFld) = "C" .AND. cSrchText $ EVALUATE(cFld)
         lRecFound = .T.
         EXIT
      ENDIF
   ENDFOR
   IF lRecFound
      ? "Found text in record #"+LTRIM(STR(RECNO())) ;
         + " field: "+cFld+"="+EVALUATE(cFld)
      * matching record found - insert code here
   ENDIF
   SKIP
ENDDO
SET TALK ON
RETURN

 

[khsaunderson]

Just tried out Agent Ransack and it worked like a charm - thanks