"Data Dictionary" for VFP 8/9 1

[mdav2]

I am trying to create a program to list all the fields, data types and indexs for free field tables in a visual foxpro 8/9 database.

I have looked through some of the forums and found two posts that give ways of creating data dictionaries for database containers but I can't seem to find anything, other than the DISPLAY STRUCTURE command, that would do this for free tables. DISPLAY STRUCTURE, does not seem to include indexes either and is limited.

I have been trying to find details for a table collection but there dosen't seem to be anything like this for VFP that I can see.

Anyone any pointers on what or where to look for information on this?

Mark Davies
Warwickshire County Council

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Hi Mark,

one way would be to ADD TABLE those free tables to a DBC and then FREE TABLES after you got your data dictionary.

I also think Stonefield Database Toolkit will work on free tables too.

And you always can use AFIELDS() and ATAGINFO(), also on free tables. Why would that be limited to a DBC?

Bye, Olaf.

 

[dgrewe]

I have a table called SysIndex that I store the CDX info in.
Sysindex has one record per table and the index info is in a memo field.
Here is how I do it for version 8&9 if it helps.

PROCEDURE VFP_V8
LOCAL lcString AS CHARACTER
LOCAL lnTags AS NUMBER
*
* Get Tag Information In an Array
*
lnTags=ATAGINFO(laCdxTag)
IF lnTags > 0
	FOR x = 1 TO lnTags
		lcString = "INDEX ON " + laCdxTag[x,3] + " TAG " +laCdxTag[x,1] + " "
		IF !EMPTY(laCdxTag[x,4])
			lcString = lcString  + "FOR " + laCdxTag[x,4] + " "
		ENDIF
		IF !EMPTY(laCdxTag[x,5])
			lcString = lcString + laCdxTag[x,5] + " "
		ENDIF
		IF laCdxTag[x,2] <> "REGULAR"
			lcString = lcString + laCdxTag[x,2] + " "
		ENDIF
		IF x = 1
			REPLACE sysindex.CDXPRG WITH lcString+CHR(13)+CHR(10)
		ELSE
			REPLACE sysindex.CDXPRG WITH lcString+CHR(13)+CHR(10) ADDITIVE
		ENDIF
	ENDFOR
ENDIF
*
USE
SELECT sysindex
RELEASE lcString,lnTags,laCdxTag,x
RETURN

David W. Grewe Dave

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mark,

What tools did you find that work with DBC-based tables? It's likely that these could easily be modified to work to with free tables. For example, if they use ADBOBJECT() to get a list of the tables, these could perhaps be modified to use ADIR() instead.

Olaf suggested Stonefield Database Toolkit. This does indeed work with free tables. I used this once on a project, and it worked very well, although it might be overkill for what you want.

One other possibility: Take a look at my article Generate a database automatically from a schema document. It's a different approach to what you have in mind, but it's one that has worked very well for me.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[dgrewe]

Mark.
Took me a while to find it because I converted most my code to use databases, but since Olaf mentioned AFIELDS() here is a alternative way of doing it before AFIELDS was available.

USE (lcDbfName) 
lnFcount = FCOUNT()
FOR lnX = 1 TO lnFcount
	lcField = FIELD(lnX)
	data2chk = &lcField
	DATATYPE = VARTYPE(data2chk)
.... do what you need to save the datatype
ENDFOR

David W. Grewe Dave

 

[GriffMG]

Why not use gendbc?

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[Mike Lewis]

Why not use gendbc?

Unless I'm mistaken, Gendbc works with databases, not free tables.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[GriffMG]

Doh, I should learn to read!

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[mm0000]

Why dont you use PDM - the freeware tool for project documentation. You can download it from

http://gorila.netlab.cz/pdm.html

HTH

 

[mdav2]

Thanks to everyone who has responded. . I think I need to find an hour or two to look through all this and work out my best options. I did look at the stonefield database program but thought there must be a similar way to do it via code and object collections. Looks like it is possible so will write a small app to do it.

Mark Davies
Warwickshire County Council

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mark,

Let us know what you come up with.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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

 

[mdav2]

The PDM tool is really good as it pretty much documents everything you would possibly need. I have run it through against one of my projects and had no issues with errors.

The Stonefield tools is a bit of overkill for what I need.

I may still create a small app to drop specific table details using the AFIELDS and ADIR into excel\word for documenting.

Mark Davies
Warwickshire County Council