BUG: FoxPro Does Not Import .DIF Format File

ID: Q105834

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0
Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, versions 2.0, 2.5x, 2.6, 2.6a
Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.5x, 2.6, 2.6a
Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, versions 2.5x, 2.6a

SYMPTOMS

When attempting to append a Data Interchange Format (DIF) file, the following error message is returned:

   Invalid DIF vector - DBF field mismatch.

RESOLUTION

Perform one of the following:

If the software that generated the .DIF file supports any of the file types supported in FoxPro, use one of them instead. For a list of supported file types see the APPEND FROM command in the "Microsoft FoxPro Language Reference" L3-193. FoxPro can also open dBASE files directly. If this is not possible, you will need to use Low-Level file I/O; see Chapter 10 of the "Developers Guide."
-or-
Reverse the Vector and Tuple values.
DIF files are essentially text files that contain various statements defining the data items. Among the data in a .DIF file are items labeled
```
   'VECTORS' and 'TUPLES'. Reverse the values for the Vectors and Tuples.

   For example, here is a sample Microsoft Excel .DIF file that FoxPro
```

can't

   import:

      VECTORS
      0,3
      TUPLES
      0,4

  Modify the file so that it looks like the following:

      VECTORS
      0,4
      TUPLES
      0,3

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: This has been reported to occur with .DIF files created by applications other than Microsoft Excel.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. In a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, fill cells A1 to A10 with the string

   'abcd' or the numeric 1234. Save the file in DIF format as
   SHEET1.DIF.

2. Create a single-field table structure in FoxPro, and define that

   field as either character or numeric with the default width
   (per the data type entered in step 1).

3. Issue the following command at the command window:

   APPEND FROM sheet1.dif TYPE DIF

For more information about the way Microsoft Excel saves .DIF files, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q60997
   TITLE     : Excel and Lotus DIF File Differences

Additional query words: DIF APPEND FROM FAR errmsg err msg xl kbvfp300 kbvfp500 kbvfp600

Keywords          : kbinterop kbVFp500abug kbVFP250bug kbVFP250abug buglist2.00 kbbuglist
Version           : WINDOWS: 2.0,2.5x,2.6,2.6a,3.0,5.0,5.0a,6.0
Platform          : MACINTOSH MS-DOS WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbbug