A report that is transported from FoxPro 2.x for MS-DOS causes problems in Visual FoxPro (256156)

CAUSE

The report writer in Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS contains an interface that allows the developer to select a style for printing a selected field. The interface inputs values in a memo field of the report (.frx) called "style." Values that the interface can input are:

B - for Bold print
I - for Italic print
U - for Underlined print
R - for Raised face (Superscript) print
L - for Lowered face (Subscript) print
J - for right Justified print alignment
C - for Centered print alignment

In the event that a report .frx file contains any style code or codes other than those listed above, the report can cause system problems when it is transported to Microsoft Windows and edited within or run from Visual FoxPro.

STATUS

Visual FoxPro for Windows adds additional fields to a report .frx file that store font and formatting information. For this reason, the report writer of Visual FoxPro does not utilize the style field of the report .frx file. However, the style field is present for backward compatibility and Visual FoxPro does read the style field (and all the .frx file information) when:

Saving a modified report
Closing a report in design mode
Rendering a report at run time

One particular activity that demonstrates the adverse impact of the unexpected style information is to copy objects (copying to and pasting from the clipboard) from one report to another. After this is done, close one report and then the other. This step might need to be repeated two or three times and then the following error can occur:

The instruction at "memory address" referenced memory at "memory address". The memory could not be "written".

After this message is displayed, Visual FoxPro shuts down.

A number of third-party products are available as extensions to the FoxPro for MS-DOS report writer. These usually come with PDSETUP (Printer Driver Setup) information that allows for printing special character sets (such as bar codes, and so forth) in MS-DOS. These can input values in the style field of the report .frx file that are not listed in the "Cause" section of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

It is important that the following steps not be performed in a session of Visual FoxPro where important information has not been saved and closed. It is best to perform this in a newly started session of Visual FoxPro.

To reproduce this behavior, perform the following:

Within Microsoft Visual FoxPro, open a sample table. Do not use a working table.
From the File menu, select New, select the Report button, and click the New File button.
Within the report writer, click the Report menu, and then select Quick Report. Deselect Add table to data environment, choose the vertical Field Layout, and then click OK.
Close and save the report as Test1.

In the Command window, do the following to add a "T" to the style field for the top-most two report objects:

USE test1.frx
REPLACE style WITH "T" FOR RECNO() > 4 AND RECNO() < 7
USE && closes the test1.frx
CREATE REPORT test2.frx &&for the copy and paste operation

While the test2 report is still open, open the test1 report.
Select a number of objects in the test1 report, ensure that the top-most two objects are among them, and copy them to the clipboard.
Now select the test2 report and paste the objects into it.
Close and save the test2 report.
Close the test1 report. Repeat items 6 through 10 (if necessary) and note that an error occurs and Visual FoxPro shuts down.