Table Structure changed??

[Bradley Chesnut]

How can the Table Structure be changed automatically? I had 9 fields where the last character got dropped. How does this happen? Also, the ".ddd" file seemed to become corrupt. How does that happen?

Please understand, knowing how these things happen helps me to know how to avoid them. Thank you.

[Selwyn Rabins]

RE: Table Structure changed??

i can't think of any situation where the table structure would get changed. i have not come across such a situation.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Table Structure changed??

Bradley,

Are you opening the DBF files with tools other than Alpha Five?

Are you saying the fieldnames were truncated?

- tom

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Table Structure changed??

No, only opening up the dbf files with A5. Yes, they got truncated, but with no pattern. Longer fields didn't get truncated. It was only 9 fields of about 30.

[forskare]

RE: Table Structure changed??

Bradley,

Tell us exactly what you did, step by step so we can try to recreate the problem. Often, when I explain the steps I've take, I discover my error. Not saying you made an error but we beed the details.

kenn

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Table Structure changed??


Bradley,

Here's another long shot. Did any of the fieldnames include illegal characters?

Fieldnames are limited to 32 characters, must begin with a letter, and may contain the characters A-Z, 0-9, or the underscore character. Nothing else is permitted.

-- tom

[crimmelcp]

RE: Table Structure changed??

Bradley:
I have had fields truncate names on several occasions.
It only happens when I copy a dbf from a users machine to a folder and forget to copy the dd* files with it.

Then when I open the file on my machine to view the data the long field names lose the last character.

If you copy dbf files make sure that you copy ALL of the DD* and fpt files also

Charlie Crimmel

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Table Structure changed??

No illegal characters. Only letters and underscores. Didn't even use numbers.

[David Day]

RE: Table Structure changed??

I have made something in field rules to have it later changed to xlookup stuff that I never entered. Then I redo it. Does it sound like it is corrupted?

[Selwyn Rabins]

RE: Table Structure changed??

do you mean that a rule was converted to use lookup()? (not xlookup())

if so, then this is correct behavior under the following secnario.

say you have a set: invoice_header--> customer.

in the invoice_header table, there is a field called "fullname". you can define a calc, or default expression for this field as :

customer->firstname + customer->lastname

(you can define this expression in the field rules editor ONLY IF you are defining field rules for a SET).

(this is new in a5v5. in a5v4 you could never refer to fields in other tables in the set in the field rules editor)

however, if you then close the field rules editor, and open field rules for JUST invoice_header, you will see that the expression has been automatically converted by a5 to use lookup(). that's becuase you are no longer in the set, and the only way to get the firstname and lastname field value is to use lookup().

in other words, the "set field rules" that you defined while editing field rules in the context of a set, still work in the context of editing field rules for individual tables.

[russ Boehle]

RE: Table Structure changed??

I'll have to try this but this hasn't been my experience. I have (not with the latest build) field rules for a set that referred to fields in the child. When opened for the parent only caused all kinds of problems which ultimately lead to deleting the field rule for both. Had this been reworked in a recent build?

Russ