How to Use SET PATH to Control Which Table Opens First

Last reviewed: April 30, 1996
Article ID: Q130603

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

Visual FoxPro uses SET PATH to determine which file opens first when multiple files have the same name and no database (.DBC file) is current. This behavior matches the behavior of prior versions of Microsoft FoxPro.

MORE INFORMATION

To see this behavior, assume the following directory structure:

   C:\MAIN
   C:\MAIN\ONE
   C:\MAIN\TWO

Directory MAIN contains two .DBC files (d_one and d_two). Both databases are open, neither is current.

   SET DEFAULT TO C:\MAIN
   OPEN DATABASE d_one
   OPEN DATABASE d_two
   SET DATABASE TO

The d_one database contains a T_ONE.DBF table that resides in C:\MAIN\ONE. The d_two database also contains a T_ONE.DBF table that resides in C:\MAIN\TWO.

Given this scenario, no table is opened if the following command is issued:

   USE t_one

This is because the current directory is MAIN where no table named "t_one" resides, and no database container (.DBC file) is current. Visual FoxPro looks for a free table named T_ONE.DBF in the current MAIN directory and doesn't find one, so it generates this error:

   File C:\MAIN\T_ONE.DBF does not exist.

However, if you had used SET PATH to set the path, Visual FoxPro would have located the file in which ever directory occurred first. For example:

   SET PATH TO C:\MAIN\TWO;C:\MAIN\ONE
   ** T_ONE.DBF in directory TWO is opened.

   SET PATH TO C:\MAIN\ONE;C:\MAIN\TWO
   ** T_ONE.DBF in directory ONE is opened.

To guarantee that a particular table in a database container (.DBC file) is opened, use Visual FoxPro's exclamation (!) symbol notation. For example:

   USE d_one!t_one

However, if the t_one tables did not belong to a database container (.DBC file), the exclamation (!) symbol notation could not be used. This behavior is consistent with FoxPro versions 2.x. For tables that don't belong to a Visual FoxPro database, you must use the FoxPro version 2.x method to open a specific table:

   USE TWO\t_one     && Assumes current directory is C:\MAIN

Additional reference words: 3.00 VFoxWin
KBCategory: kbprg kbcode
KBSubcategory: FxprgTable

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Last reviewed: April 30, 1996
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