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From: dcc@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Daniel Carr)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: foxbase/dbase
Message-ID: <1991Jun19.152025.14890@ncsu.edu>
Date: 19 Jun 91 15:20:25 GMT
Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: dcc@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Daniel Carr)
Organization: NCSU Computing Center
Lines: 62



in a previous post i said:

   i'm trying to set up a database so that we don't have to use foxbase
   mac's report generator.  i would like to use MS Word's Print Merge
   feature, but i can't seem to get output from the database to be in a
   file that Word expects (i.e. a line with the field names, separated by
   tabs, and then each line being a record, with each field separated by
   tabs. i can do one or the other, but not both in the same file.
   
   if you know anyone doing this, please ask them to give me pointers.  i'm
   about it give up.


i had already known about SET ALTERNATE and COPY TO, but i didn't
realize that i could use TYPE to achieve what i wanted.  so here is what
i have so far:

COPY TO temp.txt NEXT 5 DELIMITED WITH TAB
STORE FCOUNT() TO n
STORE 1 TO x
SET ALTERNATE TO printmerge.txt
SET ALTERNATE ON

DO WHILE x<n
   ??field(x)
   x=x+1
ENDDO
?field(n)

TYPE temp.txt
DELETE FILE temp.txt
SET ALTERNATE OFF
SET ALTERNATE TO


ok, so it's a hack.  my last problem is overcoming the barrier of 255
chars per string, or getting my field names, separated by tabs on one
line.  the problem i'm faced with is that ?? and ? appear to buffer the
output to a string, and the string's max length is 255 chars.  so
foxbase happily truncates the string without telling me.

so, besides shortening my field names, how can i get more that 255 chars
in a string, or, more simply, how can i get more than 255 chars on one
line?

thanks for any help!

daniel

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Daniel Carr       North Carolina State University 
                  "Wow Bob wow" -- Twin Peaks final episode  
internet e-mail:  daniel_carr@ncsu.edu
bitnet e-mail:    DANIEL@NCSUVM

--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Daniel Carr       North Carolina State University 
                  "Wow Bob wow" -- Twin Peaks final episode  
internet e-mail:  daniel_carr@ncsu.edu