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How to: Select Records to Append

If you only want to append certain records, you can use a FOR expression. Visual FoxPro uses the expression to search the entire file and append only records that match the expression you provide. The fields you specify in the FOR expression must exist in both the source and destination files.

To select records to append

  1. Browse the destination table, and then from the Table menu, choose Append Records.

  2. Enter the source file type and name, and then choose Options.

  3. Choose For to build an expression in the Expression Builder dialog box.

    Note

    You do not need to enter the command FOR because it is implied. For example, type customer.country = "Canada" to append only Canadian information.

  4. Choose OK.

If you append from a text file, Visual FoxPro assumes your fields are separated by commas and that each character field is enclosed by quotation marks. If you have set the decimal point character to display as a comma, numeric and currency data might be parsed into separate fields.

For example, Visual FoxPro translates the value 100,00 into two fields because it appears to be delimited with a comma. Choose one of two methods to make sure the comma is properly translated:

  • Use tabs to separate fields in the text file.

  • Change the decimal point character back to a period.

If you want to append from a text file, change the field separators to tabs, then use the APPEND FROM command with the keywords DELIMITED WITH TAB.

If you want to change the decimal point character to a period before appending text files, you can change the character back to a comma after you append the file.

To change the decimal point character

  1. In the Command window, type the following command.

    SET POINT TO
    
  2. Import the file using the DELIMITED keyword.

  3. In the Command window, type the following command to reset the decimal point character to a comma.

    SET POINT TO ','
    

See Also

Tasks

How to: Append Data with the Import Wizard

How to: Select Fields to Append

Concepts

Exporting Data

Appending Data

Other Resources

Importing and Exporting Data