FIX: WriteExpression Fails With Unknown Error Code -5 (221736)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows 6.0
This article was previously published under Q221736

SYMPTOMS

Under some circumstances in Visual FoxPro 6.0, the WriteExpression method might produce the following error:
Unknown error code -5
In Visual FoxPro 5.0, the same command produces this error:
Syntax error.
The syntax error is also what Visual FoxPro 6.0 should be reporting.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

This bug was corrected in Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3. For more information about Visual Studio service packs, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

194022 INFO: Visual Studio 6.0 Service Packs, What, Where, Why

194295 HOWTO: Tell That Visual Studio 6.0 Service Packs Are Installed

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Create a program that contains the following code:
    PUBLIC oForm
oForm = createobject("form")
oForm.AddObject("mybutton","commandbutton")
oButton = oForm.MyButton
oForm.Show()
oButton.Visible = .t.
* This next line causes the error.
oButton.WriteExpression("Caption","Date: " + MDY(DATE()))
* This one is correct:
* oButton.WriteExpression("Caption",["Date: " + MDY(DATE())])
  2. Run the program.
After running the program in Visual FoxPro 6.0, the following error appears:
Unknown error code -5
For the code to run properly, follow the comments in the program and change the appropriate lines of code and execute the program again.

Note that the line of code: 
oButton.WriteExpression("Caption","Date: " + MDY(DATE()))
contains a syntax error. The WriteExpression method is expecting the second argument to be enclosed in quotes. In this case, a text string is being concatenated with another text string returned by the MDY() function. This whole expression, once concatenated together, needs to be in quotes for WriteExpression. Single quotes (' ') or square brackets [ ] can be used to accomplish this. The corrected line of code could also be constructed as follows:
oButton.WriteExpression("Caption",'[Date: ] + MDY(DATE())')
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/16/2002
Keywords:kbBug kbOOP kbVS600sp3fix KB221736
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.