PRB: Importing MS Excel Spreadsheet Gives Field Names A, B, C (101441)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows 3.0
- Microsoft FoxPro for Windows 2.5
- Microsoft FoxPro for Windows 2.5a
- Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS 2.0
- Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS 2.5
- Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS 2.5a
This article was previously published under Q101441 SYMPTOMS
Importing a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into FoxPro results in
incorrect field names. If the field names are designated as "Name",
"Customer", and "Address" on the first row of the spreadsheet, they
will show as "A", "B", and "C" in the FoxPro .DBF file.
CAUSE
By design, FoxPro will use the column headings, not a row of
information, from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet as the field names in
the database created with the IMPORT command.
RESOLUTION
To work around this behavior, do the following in Microsoft Excel:
- On the spreadsheet you want to import into Microsoft FoxPro, select
all the cells containing information.
NOTE: This should include the row containing the column headings.
- Do one of the following:
- In Microsoft Excel version 5.0, from the Insert menu select Name
Define, and then type database as the
name.
-or-
- In Microsoft Excel version 4.0, from the Data menu, choose Set
Database to set the range of the database boundaries.
- From the File menu, choose Save As and save the spreadsheet as type
DBF4.
- Switch to FoxPro and open the DBF4 file; its extension is .DBF.
The field names will now be based on the first row of data from the
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 12/1/2003 |
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| Keywords: | KB101441 |
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