Problem with Dots in Filenames and Lookups

[Bob Stockler]

On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 12:19:26PM -0500, Mike Rathburn wrote:
| fP ODBC v1 on Winderz
| 
| We did a conversion from UNIX to Windows, and now a specific report will
| give a syntax error.  The report is being run from a file called pr.trx.
| The syntax error is coming from the code below, putting the pointer where
| the filename's dot is (as if it doesn't like the filename with a dot in it).
| 
| This report still runs fine from the old 4.5 UNIX system.  Only bombs on the
| fPODBC v1 Windows system.  What's weird is that apparently (so far) there
| seems to be no other issues with filenames and dots in those filenames.
| There are a gozillion other lookups in other processing tables, input and
| output.
| 
| 		If:	
| 		Then:	lookup ap.initems  k=ud   i=e -ng
| loopdes	If:	not ap.initems
| 		Then:	return
| 		If:	ap.initems(1) ge ud+"100"
| 		Then:	return
| 		If:	
| 		Then:	ub(9,.2)=ap.initems(3)*ap.initems(5)
| 		If:	ap.initems(24) ne 1
| 		Then:	getnext ap.initems; goto loopdes
| 
| The syntax error looked like:
| 
| ap.initems(1) ge ud+"100"
|   ^
| 
| At any rate, I changed the lookup to:
| 
| lookup apinitems = ap.initems  k=ud   i=e -ng
| 
| and subsequent references to the lookup variable, and now all is well.
| There was one other lookup in this particular output processing table that
| looked like:
| 
| lookup ap.po  k=6  i=e -nx
| 
| That I also had to change to a variable for the same reason.
| 
| Any idea as to why this particular lookup with a dot in the filename would
| produce a syntax error?

Apparently filePro on Windows doesn't like for filePro files to
have a dot in their names.  I just tried to create one, and it
wouldn't accept it (no error message, it just went back to the
screen where I started).

Also, I have a filePro file I had renamed "name.old".  When I
try to select it by highlighting it in the Define Files screen
and pressing [Enter], it just goes back to that screen (no
error message - or asking for a password, which it would do on
UNIX).

Here's a note under LOOKUP in Laura's Help Files:

  Note: The alias name must be 3 to 32 characters long. It may not start
        with a number. Case is not significant. Valid characters are:
                   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789_-
        Under Unix, '.' can also be used.

But it looks like you'll have more problems than just LOOKUPs if you
have a lot of filePro Files with a dot in their names - you'll most
likely have to copy them all to names without the dot, they edit all
of the stuff that references them.

Bob

-- 
Bob Stockler - bob at trebor.iglou.com
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