How to Check for a Missing Table in a Database Container

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

After a lot of tables are added to a database container, the pictures of the tables in the database designer window can become overlapped, sometimes making it look like a table is missing from the database container. Instead of trying to move each table in the Database Designer, open the database (.dbc file) as a table, and browse the database to find out if that table still belongs in the database container. If the table that seems to be missing in the database is listed here, you can modify the database container, and move each table to find the hidden table.

CAUTION: Be careful when renaming or deleting the resource files as described in the following paragraph; there is other information saved in these files that Visual FoxPro uses. These files are located in the Vfp directory by default.

Another way to find the hidden table is to rename or delete the resource files: Foxuser.dbf and Foxuser.fpt. The location of where each table is placed in the database container is stored in these files.

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example

1. Select a database container that has several tables in it.

2. Click and hold the mouse button down on the title of a table, and drag the table so that it overlaps another table. Because the underlying table can't be seen, a user might think that it has been deleted from the database container.

3. Type CLOSE DATABASE in the Command window to close the database. Type the following command in the Command window to open the database container as a table:

   USE <databasename>.DBC

4. Type BROWSE FOR UPPER(objecttype)='TABLE' in the Command window, and note that the fields showing will contain the table names of all the tables held in the database container.