How to Use SET PATH to Control Which Table Opens First (130603)

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To see this behavior, assume the following directory structure:

   C:\MAIN
   C:\MAIN\ONE
   C:\MAIN\TWO
				

Directory MAIN contains two .DBC files (d_one and d_two). Both databases are open, neither is current.

   SET DEFAULT TO C:\MAIN
   OPEN DATABASE d_one
   OPEN DATABASE d_two
   SET DATABASE TO
				

The d_one database contains a T_ONE.DBF table that resides in C:\MAIN\ONE. The d_two database also contains a T_ONE.DBF table that resides in C:\MAIN\TWO.

Given this scenario, no table is opened if the following command is issued:

   USE t_one
				

This is because the current directory is MAIN where no table named "t_one" resides, and no database container (.DBC file) is current. Visual FoxPro looks for a free table named T_ONE.DBF in the current MAIN directory and doesn't find one, so it generates this error:

   File C:\MAIN\T_ONE.DBF does not exist.
				

However, if you had used SET PATH to set the path, Visual FoxPro would have located the file in which ever directory occurred first. For example:

   SET PATH TO C:\MAIN\TWO;C:\MAIN\ONE
   ** T_ONE.DBF in directory TWO is opened.

   SET PATH TO C:\MAIN\ONE;C:\MAIN\TWO
   ** T_ONE.DBF in directory ONE is opened.
				

To guarantee that a particular table in a database container (.DBC file) is opened, use Visual FoxPro's exclamation (!) symbol notation. For example:

   USE d_one!t_one
				

However, if the t_one tables did not belong to a database container (.DBC file), the exclamation (!) symbol notation could not be used. This behavior is consistent with FoxPro versions 2.x. For tables that don't belong to a Visual FoxPro database, you must use the FoxPro version 2.x method to open a specific table:

   USE TWO\t_one     && Assumes current directory is C:\MAIN