PRB: Long Variable Names from 2.x Not Found in Visual FoxPro

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

A program written in version 2.x of FoxPro demonstrates unpredictable behavior when run in Visual FoxPro if it refers to fields or memory variables with names containing more than 10 characters.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because of additional features that have been added to Visual FoxPro. The field or memory variable name may have been typed incorrectly on one or more lines of code.

In FoxPro version 2.x, only the first 10 characters of procedure, field, and memory variable names were considered significant. The following lines of code would both update a memory variable named lmLongVari:

   lmLongVariable = "ABCD"
   lmLongVaribale = "DEFG"

However, Visual FoxPro allows names with up to 254 characters. The same code in Visual FoxPro would create two variables, each containing a different value.

RESOLUTION

Verify that all names over 10 characters long are identically named in all code that refers to them.

MORE INFORMATION

The cross reference report contained in the version 2.x FoxDoc application, or the Visual FoxPro Documentation Wizard, can be helpful in determining each location where a long variable name has been used.