Q176655: HOWTO: Convert a Word Table to a FoxPro Table
Article: Q176655
Product(s): Microsoft FoxPro
Version(s):
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s): kbnokeyword kbHWMAC kbvfp300 kbvfp500 kbvfp600 kbvfp260
Last Modified: 21-AUG-1999
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0b, 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b
- Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.6, 2.6a
- Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, version 2.6a
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SUMMARY
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Sometimes, you may need to convert a Word table object into a FoxPro or Visual
FoxPro table (.dbf) file. The Word table object is not really a .dbf file and
FoxPro cannot directly read the data contained in the Word table. This article
provides three methods of converting a Word table into a .dbf file.
MORE INFORMATION
================
The first two methods utilize the functionality of Microsoft Word. The third
method uses FoxPro's low-level file functions to read a text file and place data
from each of the "fields" in the Word table into the corresponding field of a
FoxPro table.
For demonstration purposes, the code examples use a Word table containing five
columns and eight rows. The sample data for the table appears below:
First Name Last Name State DOB Terms
George Washington VA 2/22/1732 2
John Adams MA 10/30/1735 2
Thomas Jefferson VA 04/13/1743 2
James Madison VA 03/16/1751 2
James Monroe VA 04/28/1758 2
John Adams MA 04/11/1767 1
Andrew Jackson SC 03/15/1767 3
Method One
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1. Create the table described above in Word. Select the entire table and then
click Copy from the Edit menu.
2. Start Microsoft Excel and open an empty worksheet.
3. Place the cursor in the first cell of the worksheet and click Paste from the
Edit menu. The contents of the table should appear in the spreadsheet.
4. On the File menu, click Save As, and then select DBF 3 (dBase III) from the
"Save File as Type" list. Next, click Save. This saves the table as a .dbf
file. Close Microsoft Excel.
5. Open the table in FoxPro with the USE command. If FoxPro prompts for a code
page, choose 1252 - Windows ANSI.
This method converts the contents of the first row of the Word table to the field
names of the .dbf file.
Method Two
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1. Using Word, create and save the table described in the More Information
section. On the Table menu, click Select Table.
2. Click the Table menu again and select "Convert Table to Text."
3. In the "Convert Table to Text" dialog box, select commas in the "Separate
Text With" section and click OK.
4. On the File menu, click "Save As", and then select MS-DOS Text from the "Save
as File Type." Name the file Test.txt and click Save.
5. Create a table in FoxPro with the same structure as the Word table.
6. In the FoxPro Command window, issue the following command:
APPEND FROM <filename> TYPE DELIMITED
The APPEND FROM places one record in the table for each row in the text file.
If the Word table contains headings for each column, the first record of the new
.dbf file now contains this data. Use the FoxPro DELETE command to remove this
record.
Method Three
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1. Using Word, create the table described in the More Information section.
Select the table in Word and then copy and paste the table to a new Word
Document.
2. On the File menu, click Save As and save the file as an MS-DOS Text file.
3. Create a .dbf file in FoxPro that contains the same fields as the Word table.
The size of each field should be large enough to accommodate all the data
from the contents of the largest field. Save the table as ztable1.dbf.
4. Copy the following code into a program file in FoxPro and then execute the
code:
PARAMETERS nrows
USE ztable1.DBF
=AFIELDS(atbldata,"ztable1")
x=1
fname=""
STORE FOPEN('test.txt') TO hTextFile && Open the file.
STORE FSEEK(hTextFile, 0, 2) TO FileEnd && Move pointer to EOF.
STORE FSEEK(hTextFile, 0) TO FileTop && Move pointer to BOF.
IF FileEnd <= 0 && Is file empty?
WAIT WINDOW 'This file is empty!' NOWAIT
ELSE
FSIZE=FSEEK(hTextFile,0,2) && Determine file size.
=FSEEK(hTextFile,0,0) && Go to the top of file.
DO WHILE x <= nrows
APPEND BLANK
FOR i= 1 TO ALEN(atbldata,1) && Loop for each field in Array.
FieldData = FGETS(hTextFile, FileEnd) && Store contents in
&& a variable.
fname=ALLTRIM(atbldata(i,1)) && Trims blanks from data.
REPLACE (fname) WITH FieldData && Places data in .dbf
&& file field.
ENDFOR
x=x+1 && Increment counter for next field.
ENDDO
ENDIF
= FCLOSE(hTextFile) && Close the file.
To use this program with the data provided above, use the following syntax:
DO Tbltodbf.prg with 7
NOTE: The number 7 in the above command indicates the number of rows in the Word
table. This code makes the following assumptions:
- A FoxPro table named ztable.dbf exists with the same structure as the Word
table.
- The Word table is saved to an MS-DOS text file called Test.txt.
- All the fields in the Word table will be treated as character field types.
- The number of rows to import from the Word table is known and passed to the
program.
- The first row in the Word table is treated like a record in the FoxPro table.
- The Word table contains no fields longer than 254 characters.
Additional query words:
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Keywords : kbnokeyword kbHWMAC kbvfp300 kbvfp500 kbvfp600 kbvfp260
Technology : kbHWMAC kbOSMAC kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbFoxproSearch kbFoxPro260aMac kbFoxPro260 kbFoxPro260a kbVFP300bMac kbVFP300b kbVFP500 kbVFP600 kbVFP500a
Issue type : kbhowto
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