Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

[spain246]

Hey Guys and Gals,
I've got an xbasic script in alpha that is supposed to copy a group of files ("fone*.cdr") to an input folder in my database directory. I keep getting "Argument is incorrect data type" on line 25. It is set as C (character), so I don't have any idea why this quit working.

Can anyone make heads or tails out of this? It was working just fine, then it died. I'm attaching a test database and here are the instructions for re-creating the problem.

1. Unzip the file.
2. Copy the INETSTAR folder to a different destination. (ex: The root C:\ Drive). The INETSTAR folder should contain 4 files. (fone0002.cdr, fone0003.cdr, fone0004.cdr, and fone0005.cdr)
3. Start the Alpha database.
4. When the main menu (form) appears, select the location of where you put the INETSTAR folder by pressing the "Set Directory of Files To Copy" button.
5. When that is finished. press the "Copy Files to Input Directory" button.

What should happen is all 4 of these files should be copied from the INETSTAR folder to the INPUT folder that is located as a subfolder of the datase folder.

Any ideas? Like I said, it has worked fine, then it just quit. Thanks!

Steve Hall

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Steve, the scripts ran flawlessly here. Perhaps there's something odd or even illegal in the folder name where you stored the input files. Here I followed your suggestion and made the INETSTAR folder a subfolder of the root of the C: drive. -- tom

[spain246]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Tom, Thanks for checking this out for me. It's amazing, I checked it out this morning and it worked just fine. This drives me nuts sometimes.

Steve H

[spain246]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

I guess I spoke too soon. This keeps telling me incorrect argument type. It worked before and now it quit again.

All I am doing is copying a group of files from one directory to another.

Here is my coding. Any Ideas?

delete var_path
dim global var_path as c
delete var_PC_name
dim var_Pc_name as c
var_Pc_name = API_GetMachineName()
tbl=table.open("path_tempinet")
indx = tbl.index_primary_put("Pc_name")
tbl.fetch_find(var_Pc_name)
var_path = tbl.imp_path
tbl.close()

'File Copy from INET to INPUT Directory
dim lst as C
cdrcopy = filename_decode("Input/")
lst = filefind.get(filename_decode(var_path)+("fone*.cdr"))
if file.exists(lst) = .f. then
copy_files(filename_decode(var_path), cdrcopy, lst)

End if

This script should select the path from a table record, add the filenames to the end of the path, and then copy all of the files to a new directory.

Thanks!
Steve Hall

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

I guess I spoke too soon. This keeps telling me incorrect argument type. It worked before and now it quit again.

All I am doing is copying a group of files from one directory to another.

Here is my coding. Any Ideas?

delete var_path
dim global var_path as c
delete var_PC_name
dim var_Pc_name as c
var_Pc_name = API_GetMachineName()
tbl=table.open("path_tempinet")
indx = tbl.index_primary_put("Pc_name")
tbl.fetch_find(var_Pc_name)
var_path = tbl.imp_path
tbl.close()

'File Copy from INET to INPUT Directory
dim lst as C
cdrcopy = filename_decode("Input/")
lst = filefind.get(filename_decode(var_path)+("fone*.cdr"))
if file.exists(lst) = .f. then
copy_files(filename_decode(var_path), cdrcopy, lst)

End if

This script should select the path from a table record, add the filenames to the end of the path, and then copy all of the files to a new directory.

Thanks!
Steve Hall

Have you visually examined the table values when the problem occurs? Since it works at times and fails at others, I would suspect the script is encountering a value that causes the error.

[spain246]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Hey Stan,
I have examined the table values, and they never change. It seems that if I turn my computer off, then back on the script works. Then it just stops working.
I've found the problem. For some reason the asterik * is causing the problem.
lst = filefind.get(filename_decode(var_path)+("fone*.cdr"))
If I remove the asterik and change the file to "fone0001.cdr", the file.exists(lst) works just fine.
However, i've tried fone*.cdr, fone*, fone*.* and none of them work with the file.exists() command. Anybody have any thoughts on this problem? Is this a bug?

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Hey Stan,
I have examined the table values, and they never change. It seems that if I turn my computer off, then back on the script works. Then it just stops working.
I've found the problem. For some reason the asterik * is causing the problem.
lst = filefind.get(filename_decode(var_path)+("fone*.cdr"))
If I remove the asterik and change the file to "fone0001.cdr", the file.exists(lst) works just fine.
However, i've tried fone*.cdr, fone*, fone*.* and none of them work with the file.exists() command. Anybody have any thoughts on this problem? Is this a bug?

Not exactly sure how the wildcard characters are supposed to work but it seems the asterik signifies a whole word and ? a character. Try

lst = filefind.get(filename_decode(var_path)+("fone????.cdr"))

[spain246]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Not exactly sure how the wildcard characters are supposed to work but it seems the asterik signifies a whole word and ? a character. Try

lst = filefind.get(filename_decode(var_path)+("fone????.cdr"))

Hey Stan,
I plugged that into the equation, and it didn't work either. I wonder if file.exists() only works with one filename at a time vs. all of the filenames using an * or a ?. Basically, it's an IF...THEN that I need so my program won't try to copy files that don't exist.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Hey Stan,
I plugged that into the equation, and it didn't work either. I wonder if file.exists() only works with one filename at a time vs. all of the filenames using an * or a ?. Basically, it's an IF...THEN that I need so my program won't try to copy files that don't exist.

You could probably use a *for_each() or

for i = 1 to w_count(lst)
if file.exists(word(lst,i,crlf())) = .f. then
copy_files(filename_decode(var_path), cdrcopy, word(lst,i,crlf()))

End if
next i

[spain246]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Hey Stan,
I just removed it all together. It fixed my problem, but I am going to try your method. It just feels like one of those wierd things that didn't carry over from Version 6 to Version 7.

[G Gabriel]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Steve/Stan:
The wild card * signifies "any number of characters" while the wild card ? signifies one character.

I do not think this is a bug but I do not think you could use exist() in this context either. Exist) will look for a "Key value". A value with a wild card charachter is no longer a "Key value".

So, how do you accomplish what you want. I am in a very big of a hurry, but I put something together pretty quick, I am sure you, Stan or Tom could refine it:

You are looking for files that have "fone" in the name and "cdr" in the extenstion.

put a filter that says something like this:
dim a as c="c:\my documents\fone1234.cdr"
?substr(a,atc("\\",a,-1)+1) 'this will give you the file name
= "fone1234.cdr"

the filter will say left(.....,4)="fone" and right(.....,3)="cdr.
Good luck, gota go!

[Lenny Forziati]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

file.exists() is intended to check the existence of a single file only. I'm quite surprised that you've ever had any success using multiple files with it and I highly recommend not doing so. Something like Stan's proposed solution that tests each file individually is the correct way to use the function.

[spain246]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Hello Lenny,
That's what I figured. It seemed to work great, then it just totally crapped out. I found a solution that works for me. However, I might put this in as a suggestion as something that would be nice to have in the future.

Thanks for the reply Lenny and everybody else. I definately appreciate it.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

He's not using the exist() function. He's using file.exists()

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Copy Files from one location to another with Xbasic problem

Hello Lenny,
That's what I figured. It seemed to work great, then it just totally crapped out. I found a solution that works for me. However, I might put this in as a suggestion as something that would be nice to have in the future.

Thanks for the reply Lenny and everybody else. I definately appreciate it.

I think the *for_each() would be

*for_each(foo,copy_files(filename_decode(var_path), cdrcopy, foo),lst)