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Truncated Field Names

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    #1

    Truncated Field Names

    Before you throw a tomato at me, I know the sage advise of those who tell us to keep field names at 10 characters or less. But, for those of us who have already designed tables with longer field names and would need to find everywhere these were used if we were to change them, then have pity on us.

    Now, to my point. I use an FTP program to access a server at a business. After hours, when the business is closed, I have been known to retrieve a table from the server, bring it in to my computer, add a field or index and then send the table back to the server using FTP. I did just that yesterday but, when looking at the table, I found field Customer_ID truncated to Customer_I plus ALL the fields with more than 10 characters in the name truncated to 10. I don't see this as an Alpha problem but wondered if anyone knew how to "fix" this? I am not experienced enough with this technology to be able to know why the files transfer but the names of the fields get truncated. How does that happen?

    Not only that; a field CC_number (credit card number) was Character 15 but after the transfer, it was a Date field. CC_Expiration was Character 5 (both from Alpha Sports) and after the transfer, it was a date field.
    Jim Belanger
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Truncated Field Names

    I have been known to retrieve a table from the server, bring it in to my computer, add a field or index and then send the table back to the server using FTP.
    Did you copy just the table or the table and its support files?

    You could experiment with copying your local support files out to the server to match up with the changes you made to the table. If it works locally it should work there.
    There can be only one.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Truncated Field Names

      I copied the .dbf, .ftp, .cdx only. I did not carry over the dd files.
      Jim Belanger

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Truncated Field Names

        I will try getting the same customer table using all the customer related files and see if that helps. Not sure if I can FTP them to my computer now, while they are most likely in use by the business so I will probably have to wait until the end of the day.
        Jim Belanger

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Truncated Field Names

          Data Dictionary
          .DDD
          The table's data dictionary, which contains lists of additional table objects such as Layouts (forms, browses, etc.), report designs, saved operations, field rules, and field names longer than 10 characters.
          Dictionary Methods, Reading From and Writing To the Data Dictionary

          .DDM
          Stores additional table objects such as Layouts (forms, browses, etc.), report designs, and saved operations in memo format.

          .DDX
          Contains the dictionary's index(es). Alpha Five uses the .ddx to find a specific form name or field rule or whatever is needed.
          There can be only one.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Truncated Field Names

            Holy SH-- er I mean Holy Cow! You got the answer right there. I can feel more comfortable with my methods of update now as long as I download ALL the files for a particular table. Many Many thanks. On the other problem, the addition a field to the table scrambled the fields. I have seen that happen before. I added two fields and when the table was reconstructed, the two character fields I added became date fields and the two date fields I had became the character fields I had added. Once these were straightened out, the app works fine. I last saw this problem with Alpha4 but had not seen it since.
            Jim Belanger

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Truncated Field Names

              Jim, it's vital to understand the limitations of the DBF format. 10 char fieldnames are all that are supported natively. Alpha overcomes this by storing long fieldnames in the data dictionaries. Visit the help file topic "Alpha Five File Types" this will tell you what is stored where. Read it. Read it. Read it again tomorrow. IMO you can't support other users without understanding this like the back of your hand. -- tom

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Truncated Field Names

                Thanks Tom. That's basically what Stan said. The shame is, I had those "content" notes written down and completely forgot about them. Felt like a dummy but then, I've been there before.
                Jim Belanger

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