"index expression too big", production down, critical!!!!!!!!

[ntarikere]

Hi everyone!
We have a Purchasing system developed using FoxPro 2.5 and I am very new to it. This morning we got an error message "index expression is too big". This message pops up as soon as we try to log into the system and kicks us out. So, right now the system is down. If anybody is aware of the message, please let me know.

Thanks
Naren

 

[dgrewe]

Did someone recently make a change or upgrade to the system?
reason being is that error is when the expression is more then 220 chareacter in length
If the system has been workibg for a long time
it is hard to believe it just now started

David W. Grewe
Dave@internationalbid.com

 

[ntarikere]

Thanks so much for your quick reply. Could you explain what the error message is? I mean if this message has to do with one index of a table, why should it lock the whole system.

Regarding change/upgrade, I don't think anything has been changed/upgraded in the recent past.

Thanks.....Naren

 

[JRB-Bldr]

As Rick (rgbean) has suggested, if your Index expression were to be over 220 characters in length, then Foxpro would give you this type of error message.

If someone has indeed been changing your program, then they might have introduced this error message. If so, then revert to the previous version of the program.

If not, then you might have a corrupted file which Foxpro is mis-interpreting as INDEX TOO LONG.

Your next question -- Which file?
Give us some more info. Are you running this application as an EXE (look at the Properties of your desktop shortcut). Or are you running it as an APP or FXP?

You might have a corrupted program file or it might be the IDS or CDX file associated with a DBF file.

Give us the additional info and we'll try to help.

Good Luck,
jrbbldr
jrbbldr@yahoo.com

 

[ntarikere]

Can you explain your line "Index expression over 220 characters in length". I'm very familiar with index but no idea what is an index expression is.

Yes, We are running this application as an EXE. Do you think the EXE is corrupt?

Thanks you so much!
naren

 

[JRB-Bldr]

The INDEX is built by Foxpro via an "expression"
INDEX ON <expression> .......

Example:
INDEX ON field1+field2+ALLTRIM(field3)..... TAG newkey

The &quot;expression&quot; is the string which defines the INDEX.

The first thing that I would try is to find out which data table (DBF File) was causing the problem. From that I would go into the Command window of Foxpro's IDE and try to open it manually (example: USE mytable IN 0).

If that worked, then the Index file is OK and the problem might very likely be in the EXE file.

However if that did not work, then the problem would appear to be in the Index file for the table (IDX, NDX, of CDX file). If that is the case you might need to restore it from a backup or to re-create it.

Good Luck,
jrbbldr
jrbbldr@yahoo.com

 

[rgbean]

jrbbldr,
Note: That was David's comment not mine, but I completely agree.

Naren,
If you haven't had any recent changes made to the program, then it's likely you have a corrupted index file, such that FoxPro &quot;thinks&quot; the expression is too long, because the index file header is bad. If you have an option to recreate the indexes, I'd suggest trying that. If you can't even get into the app to try that, are there any standalone &quot;utilities&quot; to fix your data? If not, you'll probably need to resort to the most recent backup prior to this corruption.

In fact if you know which index file is bad, and you have a backup for it, after restoring it, you might be able to at least start the application up so you can reindex this file (after all this index will not match all the records in that table).

If none of this still makes sense, or it doesn't work, you may need to contact the distributor / developer of this application for help.

Rick

 

[ntarikere]

You guys have been so helpful. I finally got it fixed yesterday night. I tried restoring only those tables and indices which I thought would have got corrupted, but it didn't work. So, finally had to restore everything (all tables and indices in the system) and it worked! Well, may be not the ideal solution but certainly was a quick fix (which is what they wanted).

Thank you everyone!
Naren