How to Use DBC Field Captions on Visual FoxPro Forms & Reports

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

The Database Container allows you to enter captions for the fields of a table. However, there is no FieldCaption control that you can place on a form to display a field's caption or to automatically update a field's label on the form should you choose to change the field's caption in the database header. The examples in this article show you how to use DBGETPROP to create a link between field labels on a form and the field captions in the database so that changes propagate.

MORE INFORMATION

Example One: Setting the Label for a Standard Text Box Field

1. Create a database that contains a table.

2. Add a caption to one or more of the table's fields.

3. Create a new form. Place a label and a text box on it.

4. Add the table to the data environment of the form, and set the ControlSource property of the text box to a field that has a caption.

5. Add the following code to the Load event of the form:

   OPEN DATABASE <<insert databasename here>>

6. Add the following code to the Init event of the Label object:

   WITH This

         .Caption = ;
             DBGETPROP( .Parent.Text1.ControlSource, ;
             "FIELD", "CAPTION" )
      ENDWITH
   
   

7. Save and run the form. Note that the caption you assigned to the field is displayed by the label control.

Example Two: Setting Headings of a Grid

Normally, a grid with a ColumnCount of -1 will use the Caption property to detrmine the headings used for columns. However, if you specify the number of columns, the headings are determined by the Caption of the header object, not by the Caption property of the ControlSource field. The following code placed in a grid's Init event will set the grid headings when an instance of the grid is created:

   LOCAL iLoop, iMax, cSource

   SET DATABASE TO <<insert databasename here>>

   WITH This
      && Determine Number of Columns in Grid
      iMax = .ColumnCount

      && Get the Table Name used by the Grid
      && This is necessary because unlike a text box control,
      && the ControlSource property of a column does not preface
      && the field name with the table name, so the code must
      && do this manually. Note that "." is included.
      cSource = .RecordSource + "."

      && Loop through each column
      FOR iLoop = 1 TO iMax
         WITH .Columns(iLoop)

            && Set Header Caption
            .Header1.Caption = ;
               DBGETPROP( cSource + .ControlSource, ;
               "FIELD", "CAPTION" )
         ENDWITH
      NEXT iLoop
   ENDWITH

Example Three: Using Captions in Report Headers

To use field captions in reports, create a field (not a text label) whose expression is DBGETPROP("tablename.fieldname","FIELD","CAPTION").

NOTE: Here tablename.fieldname is the actual name of the table and field.

When the report runs, the expression will evaluate to the proper caption.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the Visual FoxPro Help file, the Developer's Guide, and the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q130997
   TITLE     : How to Use the Caption Fields of a Table in a Form