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From: dale@wucs.UUCP (Dale Frye)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.micro.att
Subject: Re: dBaseIII question
Message-ID: <1654@wucs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-May-86 18:45:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: wucs.1654
Posted: Wed May 21 18:45:04 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 25-May-86 12:43:31 EDT
References: <1038@houxa.UUCP>
Organization: Washington U. in St. Louis, CS Dept.
Lines: 30
Xref: watmath net.micro:14690 net.micro.att:1216
Summary: dbase memo fields

In article <1038@houxa.UUCP>, mhs@houxa.UUCP (M.SHERIF) writes:
> How to make up a test statement on a MEMO field?
> I would like to do something like that:
> 
> If the MEMO field is empty
>    skip
> else
>   print the field
> 
> or   
> If the first 6 characters of the MEMO field satisfy CONDITION
>    do this
> else
>   do that
> 
> I have tried several approaches but none could work.

dBase cannot acess the contents of the
memo field. The only way to do what you
want to do is by using an outside
program. A good source is Data Based
Advisor magazine. The memo field is
poorly handled by dBase. It is a disk
hog. I advise you to read up on the
do's and don'ts found in the various
magazines before you try to seriously
use the memo field.

Good Luck
Dale Frye @ Washington University in St. Louis.