PRB: COPY TO or APPEND FROM Fails If Semicolon Is Delimiter

• Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, versions 2.0, 2.5, and 2.5a
• Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.5 and 2.5a

SYMPTOMS

A COPY TO or APPEND FROM command is not executed if the last character is a semicolon.

CAUSE

When FoxPro sees the character ";" at the end of a command line, it expects a continuation before executing the whole command.

RESOLUTION

When you are using a semicolon as a delimiter in the COPY TO or APPEND FROM command, the semicolon must not be the last character on the command line. To force FoxPro to execute the command, add a clause such as FOR to the end of the command line.

For example, the code below creates an ASCII file of type delimited (with the character ";" as the delimiter) named MYTEXT.TXT from a database named CUSTOMER.DBF:

   USE CUSTOMER
   COPY TO MYTEXT.TXT TYPE DELIMITED WITH ; FOR .T.

   USE NEWCUST
   APPEND FROM MYTEXT.TXT TYPE DELIMITED WITH ; FOR .T.