Converting files from DBF into Filepro

[Laura Brody]

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 07:51:13 -0500, Tom Pancero <postmaster at cobbinc.com> wrote:

> Greetings all.
>
> Red Hat 8  --  Filepro 4.8
>
> I regularly receive data files from customers that are used in the
> preparation of commercial bulk mail.
>
> I am interested in a better approach to converting them to Filepro
> than the current one;
>
> Use 'dd' to strip off the header and create a temporary file for the
> remaining data which is in a fixed field length format.
>
> Next I use a Filepro file configured as a 'Non Filepro' key that reads
> the data elements and uses an automatic processing table to create a
> 'Maillist' record that we ultimatly mail from.
>
> There is no provision for dealing with any changes in the makeup
> of the DBF file so each time I get one of these I really need to take
> a closer than normal look at the data.
>
> Anyone have a better approach?

	Is there a problem with using the foxcopy utility?
I use dbcopy on Windows to pull DBF files into filePro. I
have it create a temporary filePro file and then run a
report to add the records into a final filePro file.

	What kind of changes to the file? If it is just the
length of fields, my method wouldn't care. If they change
the order of the fields, my copy from the temp file to
the final file wouldn't like it very much. You would have
to deal with this no matter what.


-- 
Laura Brody, Publisher of the filePro Developer's Journal
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