PRB: Error with FILTER or WHERE Including This or Thisform

ID: Q163185


The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 5.0, 6.0


SYMPTOMS

Upon browsing or skipping through a table with a filter condition set, or through a cursor created with SQL SELECT and a WHERE condition, you may see one of several errors:

Object is not contained in a FORM.
-or-
Object is not contained in a FORMSET.
-or-
THIS can only be used within a method.
-or-
THISFORM can only be used within a method.
-or-
Property <form or formset property holding filter value> is not found.


CAUSE

These errors are caused by the record pointer being moved or the table being browsed outside of the object where the FILTER or WHERE condition has been stored in a form or object property. Regardless of where the FILTER condition is set, or how the record pointer is being moved, the FILTER condition is reevaluated each time the record pointer is moved. If the table or cursor is being accessed outside the form or other object where THISFORM.<property> or THIS.<property> is a valid reference, one of these errors occurs.


RESOLUTION

To prevent these errors, use macro substitution, or store or reference the FILTER or WHERE condition in a manner where it is always a valid reference.

You can do this in several ways:

  • Set the FILTER condition with macro substitution, for example:
    
          THISFORM.cfilterstring = "cust_id = 'A'"
          lcFilterstring = THISFORM.cfilterstring
          SET FILTER TO &lcFilterstring 


  • Store the FILTER condition to a public variable, for example:
    
          PUBLIC gcFilterString
          gcFilterString = "cust_id = 'A'"
          SET FILTER TO (gcFilterString) 


  • Store the FILTER condition in a property of an object with a reference in a public variable. There is an example of this below in MORE INFORMATION.


  • If the error is caused by a WHERE condition in a cursor created with SELECT - SQL, the NOFILTER keyword may be used in Visual FoxPro 5.0 to force a temporary table to be used, rather than a filtered subset of the full table. Here, the WHERE is never reevaluated after the SELECT is executed, for example:
    
          SELECT * FROM customer WHERE cust_id = "A" ;
            INTO CURSOR custcursor NOFILTER 
    In Visual FoxPro 3.0, this can be forced by adding a calculated field to the SELECT, such as the following:
    
          SELECT *, SPACE(1) FROM customer WHERE cust_id = "A" ;
             INTO CURSOR custcursor 



STATUS

This behavior is by design.


MORE INFORMATION

Within a particular object or form references can be made, within that object's code, to the object itself or the form or formset containing it, with THIS, THISFORM, or THISFORMSET. These references are valid only within code that is contained within these objects or their members. Because of the nature of SET FILTER or a SELECT - SQL WHERE condition (when the returned records are a filtered set of records), when either of these is the case the FILTER or WHERE condition must contain references that are always valid.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Run the following code from a program (.prg) file:
    
          * Beginning of code example
          *
          PUBLIC oNavClass, oform
          oNavClass=CREATEOBJECT('navclass')
          oform=CREATEOBJECT("form1")
          oform.SHOW
    
          DEFINE CLASS navclass AS CUSTOM
             * This class does skipping and browsing in currently
             *  selected table
             cfilterstring = ""
    
             PROCEDURE DoBrowse
                BROWSE NOWAIT
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE DoSkip
                LPARAMETER ndirection
                SKIP (ndirection)
                IF EOF()
                   GO BOTTOM
                ENDIF
                IF BOF()
                   GO TOP
                ENDIF
             ENDPROC
          ENDDEFINE
    
          DEFINE CLASS form1 AS FORM
             cfilterstring = ""
             AUTOCENTER = .T.
             HEIGHT = 200
             WIDTH = 300
             CAPTION = "Form1"
             NAME = "FORM1"
    
             ADD OBJECT combo1 AS COMBOBOX WITH ;
                HEIGHT = 24, ;
                LEFT = 12, ;
                STYLE = 2, ;
                TOP = 72, ;
                WIDTH = 100, ;
                NAME = "Combo1", ;
                ROWSOURCE = "SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTR(cust_id,1,1) ;
                   FROM customer ORDER BY 1 INTO CURSOR curTemp", ;
                ROWSOURCETYPE = 3
    
             ADD OBJECT command1 AS COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
                TOP = 120, ;
                LEFT = 60, ;
                HEIGHT = 27, ;
                WIDTH = 84, ;
                CAPTION = "Skip", ;
                NAME = "Command1"
    
             ADD OBJECT text1 AS TEXTBOX WITH ;
                CONTROLSOURCE = "customer.cust_id", ;
                HEIGHT = 23, ;
                LEFT = 180, ;
                TOP = 72, ;
                WIDTH = 100, ;
                NAME = "Text1"
    
             ADD OBJECT command2 AS COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
                TOP = 120, ;
                LEFT = 168, ;
                HEIGHT = 27, ;
                WIDTH = 84, ;
                CAPTION = "Skip -1", ;
                NAME = "Command2"
    
             ADD OBJECT command3 AS COMMANDBUTTON WITH ;
                TOP = 170, ;
                LEFT = 110, ;
                HEIGHT = 27, ;
                WIDTH = 84, ;
                CAPTION = "Browse", ;
                NAME = "Command3"
    
             PROCEDURE LOAD
                USE HOME()+'samples\data\customer'
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE UNLOAD
                SET FILTER TO
                USE IN customer
                RELEASE oNavClass
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE combo1.INIT
                THIS.VALUE = THIS.LIST(1)
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE combo1.VALID
                THISFORM.cfilterstring = "cust_id = '"+THIS.VALUE+"'"
                SET FILTER TO EVAL(THISFORM.cfilterstring)
    
                * Comment out above 2 lines and remove comments from lines
                *   below to demonstrate workaround. ONavClass is public
                *   and its properties will always be in scope
    
                * oNavClass.cfilterstring = 'cust_id = "'+THIS.VALUE+'"'
                * SET FILTER TO EVAL(oNavClass.cfilterstring)
                GO BOTTOM
                GO TOP
                THISFORM.REFRESH
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE command1.CLICK
                oNavClass.DoSkip(1)
                THISFORM.REFRESH
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE command2.CLICK
                oNavClass.DoSkip(-1)
                THISFORM.REFRESH
             ENDPROC
    
             PROCEDURE command3.CLICK
                oNavClass.DoBrowse
             ENDPROC
    
          ENDDEFINE
          *
          * End of code example 


  2. A form appears. Make a selection from the drop-down list. The first record matching the condition is displayed in the text box.


  3. Press any of the three command buttons to navigate through the records or browse the filtered list. The following error occurs:
    Object is not contained in a FORM.


  4. Ignore the error, close the form, and edit the .prg file. As noted in the comments within the combo1.VALID procedure, comment out the lines storing the filter condition as a property of the form, and uncomment the lines storing the filter condition into a property of oNavClass.


  5. Rerun the form, repeat steps 2 and 3 above, and no error will occur.



REFERENCES

Visual FoxPro 5.0 Help File

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbVFp300 kbVFp500 kbVFp600 FxprgBrowse FxprgClassoop FxprgSet FxprgTable FxprgToolbar
Version : 3.0 3.0b 5.0 6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :


Last Reviewed: August 25, 1999
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