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Q297133: PRB: UPPER Function Operates on High-ASCII Characters

Article: Q297133
Product(s): Microsoft FoxPro
Version(s): 3.0,3.0b,5.0,5.0a,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbvfp kbvfp300 kbvfp300b kbvfp500 kbvfp500a kbvfp500bug kbvfp500fix kbvfp600 kbXBase kb
Last Modified: 11-MAY-2001

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SYMPTOMS
========

When you use the UPPER function on strings that include high-ASCII characters,
you may see unexpected changes.

CAUSE
=====

Visual FoxPro makes characters uppercase that are considered alphabetic by the
ISALPHA function. ISALPHA is not font-dependent, so fonts that include symbol
characters appear to behave incorrectly when strings that are displayed in them
are run through the UPPER function.

RESOLUTION
==========

If you must use symbol characters in your uppercase strings, test each character
and make it uppercase individually.

  lcOldFontName = _SCREEN.FontName
  lnOldFontSize = _SCREEN.FontSize
  _SCREEN.FontName = "FoxFont"
  _SCREEN.FontSize = 9

  *!* 241 is the plus/minus character.
  lcMixedString = "Value is 500" + CHR(241) + "0.05%"
  ? lcMixedString
  ? UPPER(lcMixedString)  && Displays box character

  lcUpperString = ""
  FOR i = 1 TO LEN(lcMixedString)
     lcCurrChar = SUBSTR(lcMixedString, i, 1)
     IF BETWEEN(lcCurrChar, "a", "z")
        lcCurrChar = UPPER(lcCurrChar)
     ENDif
     
     lcUpperString = lcUpperString + lcCurrChar
  ENDfor

  ? lcUpperString

  _SCREEN.FontName = lcOldFontName
  _SCREEN.FontSize = lnOldFontSize

STATUS
======

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION
================

To see all characters that are affected by UPPER, run the following code:

  _SCREEN.FontName = "Lucida Sans Unicode"
  CLEAR

  FOR i = 1 TO 255
     IF CHR(i) != UPPER(CHR(i))
        ? i, CHR(i), UPPER(CHR(i))
     ENDif
  ENDfor

NOTE: Change the FontName property to "FoxFont" to see the problem that is
described in the "Symptoms" section.

REFERENCES
==========

(c) Microsoft Corporation 2001, All Rights Reserved.
Contributions by Garrett Fitzgerald, Microsoft Corporation


Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbvfp kbvfp300 kbvfp300b kbvfp500 kbvfp500a kbvfp500bug kbvfp500fix kbvfp600 kbXBase kbGrpDSFox kbDSupport 
Technology        : kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbVFP300 kbVFP300b kbVFP500 kbVFP600 kbVFP500a
Version           : :3.0,3.0b,5.0,5.0a,6.0
Issue type        : kbprb

=============================================================================

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