list command problem in vfp6 1

[NatureFocus]

Hi,
I have used foxpro 2.6 a lot for data conversion and data analysis and use the list command heavily for one-off reports. I have attempted to convert to VFP 6.0 several times, but the formatting of the data on the screen / printer makes it useless. It seems to pad out fields very wide, so the data wraps around into a confusing mess. I have poked around trying to fix it, but can't find the magic incantation. Is there a way to make it list like foxpro 2.6?

An example would be: 'LIST OFF fname,lnams,phone'. In 2.6 you get 3 nice columns, in vfp6 the fields are padded out and the lines wrap around.
I hope its just a "SET"ing that I am missing. Thanks.
-Eugene

 

[danceman]

use the report generator

Attitude is Everything

 

[rgbean]

Eugene,
At least three other possible solutions:
1) Change the screen and/or printer font to non-proportional "small" font. e.g Try Courier New 9

 -- Screen --
_screen.FontName="Courier New"
_screen.Fontsize=9

 -- Printer --
SET PRINTER FONT "Courier New", 9

In general:
SET PRINTER FONT cFontName [, cFontSize] [STYLE cFontStyle]
command to set the font to a smaller fixed width font (non-proportional). For a list of candidates
check out

http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~MonospacedFonts~WIN_COM_DNA

2) Use the AFIELDS( ) Function to get the data, transfer it to a cursor, and create a simple report.
Adjust the columns as you'd like them.

3) Go to the UT (

http://www.universalthread.com/)

download area and get one of the many free
utilities that will do this for you. LS - List structure is one that comes to mind.

Rick

 

[TamarGranor]

In addition to Rick's suggestions, I wrote a piece in FoxPro Advisor about this exact problem. It's in the December '04 issue.

Tamar

 

[NatureFocus]

Hi rgbean,
Thanks, it works. I have put off converting to vfp for a couple of years because the list did not work the way I needed it. Issuing the _screen command sets the default font and makes the display useful. I have little documention on VFP and the MSDN was hard to find an answer to my problem, so I had given up.

I can not use the report generator because of the nature of what I do; Fraud detection for a telephone system. I run a select from a huge Oracle DB into a cursor, Select from that, then write it to a file, suck it into foxpro (2.6a) and do all sorts of investigations on the data. I may index and view the data dozens of times and run mulitudes of programs against the data looking for fraud. Every case is differant, and I have to be very creative to detect differant patterns. Once a pattern is detected, I do new selects... to home in on the fraud.

Thanks again. -Eugene

 

[TamarGranor]

If you're looking for good documentation on VFP, check out the books at

http://www.hentzenwerke.com.

(Disclaimer: I'm a co-author of quite a few of them.)

You might be surprised by what you can do with the Report Designer, especially with the major enhancements in VFP 9.

Tamar