Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au!levels!marwk From: marwk@levels.sait.edu.au Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Re: Clipper - SET EXACT , SEEK Message-ID: <15730.275aa66e@levels.sait.edu.au> Date: 3 Dec 90 19:24:30 GMT References: <48680@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <1990Dec3.062351.11886@pegasus.com> Organization: Sth Australian Inst of Technology Lines: 44 In article <1990Dec3.062351.11886@pegasus.com>, tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan) writes: > In article <48680@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v067qklp@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu writes: >>Just a quick question for a friend regarding Clipper: >> >> Does SET EXACT work as it does in DBASEIII+ or has >> it been found to be buggy at all? Do all the routines respect >> that flag? He's (my friend) getting frustrated complaining that >> even with EXACT ON, SEEK is setting FOUND() to true even when >> an exact match hasn't been made (e.g. lengths are different). >> > Danielle, > > I guarantee that Clipper's SEEK isn't buggy and don't know if it follows Are you being paid to make this claim? Just kidding. > dBASE III to the letter but I believe so. The fact is that SET EXACT has > no effect on a SEEK. SET EXACT is only used in comparisons and my general > rule is to SET EXACT ON at the beginning and leave it that way. One does > not want to wonder about the switch setting when comparing two strings. In order to perform the SEEK a comparion of two strings is indeed made. I have tested the SEEK and FIND commands with dBASE III and the SET EXACT command does not affect it though. > The reason that your friend > is finding the record is most likely that they are trimming the key. The > comparison is made up until the SEEK key is exhausted and at that point > you have a match. Keep the length of the variable being SOOKEN (some sort > of perverted future-tense of SEEK) the same length as the field in the > index expression. In fact 'being SOOKEN' is an attemp to use the PASSIVE tense! SOOKEN should be replaced by SOUGHT. Gone are the days when children learnt about their language - Using SOUGHT does not put the sentence into the past tense, but somply makes it passive. > > > tom leylan > former Senior Systems Analyst - Nantucket Corporation Ray former cub