PRB: Attempt to Use FoxPro Function As an Array

• Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.5, 2.5a, 2.5b, 2.6
• Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, versions 2.0, 2.5, 2.5a, 2.5b, 2.6
• Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, versions 2.5b, 2.5c

SYMPTOMS

The compiler produces the error message "Attempt to use FoxPro function as an array" when you are compiling dBASE IV code in FoxPro.

CAUSE

FoxPro allows square brackets or parentheses to be used with arrays or functions. dBASE does not allow brackets and parentheses to be used interchangeably. FoxPro will therefore produce this error message if the name of a FoxPro function (or reserved word) is used as the name of an array.

For example, the following code produces the error in FoxPro:

  DECLARE abs[1,1]

RESOLUTION

Rename the array so its name does not conflict with the name of an existing FoxPro function. For example, change this statement

   DECLARE abs[1,1]

   DECLARE newabs[1,1]

For a list of FoxPro keywords, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q96293
   TITLE     : Keywords for FoxPro 2.0 and 2.5

MORE INFORMATION

The following statements are valid in FoxPro:

  ? myfunc("hello")
  ? myfunc["hello"]
  DECLARE myarray(1,1)
  DECLARE myarray[1,1]

  ? myfunc("hello")
  DECLARE myarray[1,1]

  ? myfunc["hello"]
  DECLARE myarray(1,1)

Since FoxPro does allow brackets and parentheses to be used interchangeably, FoxPro cannot determine whether a statement refers to an array or a function. Therefore, when the FoxPro compiler encounters an expression that refers to an array with the same name as a FoxPro function, the compiler assumes the statement refers to the FoxPro function and generates an appropriate error message. This problem can be demonstrated with the following statement:

  DECLARE abs[1,1]

If the "Attempt to use FoxPro function as an array" error message occurs when you are compiling dBASE IV code, and the dBASE IV compiler does not produce an error message when compiling the code, an array whose name conflicts with the name of a FoxPro function might be used in the code.