PRB: "Compiled Code for This Line Too Long" Error Message

ID: Q111991

2.00 2.5x 2.6x | 2.5x 2.6x 3.00 | 2.5x 2.60a

MS-DOS         | WINDOWS        | MACINTOSH

The information in this article applies to:

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

SYMPTOMS

Although the FoxPro command-line length limit is 2048 bytes, a line of compiled code cannot exceed 1024 bytes (1 kilobyte). This means you can write a line of code containing fewer than 2048 characters that will generate the error message "Compiled code for this line too long" (1252).

In Visual FoxPro, the maximum number of characters per line is 8K (kilobytes). The maximum size of a line of compiled code is 4K.

CAUSE

The relationship between the character representation of a command and its compiled or "tokenized" length is unpredictable.

Variable names and object references of different lengths may compile to the same number of bytes. For example, a reference to the memory variable "A" compiles to 3 bytes. However, a reference to the variable "ABCDEFGH" also compiles to 3 bytes. Similarly, a reference to the number "1" and a reference to the number "200" will each compile to 3 bytes. For this reason, shortening alias names has no effect on the length of the tokenized line.

In addition, white space and literal strings (character strings placed within quotation marks) are not tokenized. Therefore, eliminating spaces and indentation in the command line also will not affect the tokenized line length.

WORKAROUNDS

To work around this behavior, do one of the following:

• Use an ON ERROR routine that traps errors 18 (Line too long), 1252 (Compiled code for this line too long), and 1812 (SQL statement too long).

  -or-

• Replace literal strings with variable references. This would also work for date literals (for example, {12/30/93}) and many numeric literals (for example, 4.5).

  For example, in the following SQL SELECT command

        SELECT * FROM customer ;
             WHERE company = "Allied Products" or company = "Microsoft Corp."
  
     the quoted text strings, "Allied Products" and "Microsoft Corp.", cannot
     be tokenized any further.
  
     To work around this, create a set of variables such as
  
        m.company1="Allied Products"
        m.company2="Microsoft Corp."
  
     and change your SELECT command line to the following:
  
        SELECT * FROM customer;
             WHERE company=m.company1 or company=m.company2
  
     In many cases, this command will tokenize smaller than the original
     command.
  
     NOTE: This solution does not work for small integers (less than 256)
     because the size of a tokenized 1-byte integer is the same as the size
     of a tokenized variable reference.
  
  

REFERENCES

FoxPro online Help file, "Error Messages" topic

FoxPro for MS-DOS "Developer's Guide," Appendix A

FoxPro for Windows "Developer's Guide," Appendix B

FoxPro for Macintosh "Developer's Guide," Appendix B

Additional reference words: FoxMac FoxDos FoxWin VFoxWin 2.00 2.50 2.50a 2.50b 2.50c 2.60 2.60a 3.00 errmsg err msg browse create table insert rqbe limitation capacities capacity KBCategory: kbprg kbprb KBSubcategory: FxprgGeneral

Keywords          : kberrmsg FxprgGeneral 
Version           : 2.00 2.5x 2.6x | 2.5x 2.6x 3.00
Platform          : MACINTOSH MS-DOS WINDOWS