PRB: List Box Does Not Respect NumberOfElements

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 5.0, 5.0a

SYMPTOMS

When you work with a list box in Visual FoxPro 3.0x and you specify a value for the NumberOfElements property and the ColumnCount property, the NumberOfElements will not be respected. In Visual FoxPro 5.0x, the same behavior occurs when the ColunmCount property is set to a value other than 1.

WORKAROUND

The NumberOfElements property is used only when the RowSourceType for a list box is an array. When using an array as the RowSourceType, you can redimension the array to the number of elements you want to display. For example, you could add the following code to either the form's Load event procedure or the list box's Init event procedure:

   DIMENSION testa[ 2, ALEN( testa, 2 ) ]

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. In the Command window enter the code below.

   Open the Customer table and execute the following code:

         Dimension testa[5,2]
         copy to array testa fields cust_id,country
   

2. Create a new form.

3. Add a list box to the form.

4. Change the list box properties as follows:

         RowSourceType = 5 - Array
         RowSource =  testa
         NumberOfElements = 2
         ColumnCount = 2
   

5. Save and run the form.

   In Visual FoxPro 3.0x, the list box shows 5 items, not 2. In Visual FoxPro 5.0x, changing the ColumnCount property to 1 seems to make the behavior disappear. However, the problem reappears if the ColumnCount is set to any other value.