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Conditional TRANSFORMs in VFP

Visual FoxPro's TRANSFORM function is a powerful tool for converting an expression into a string. The VFP Help file defines the syntax of the TRANSFORM function this way:

TRANSFORM(eExpression, [cFormatCodes])

eExpression is the value, or an expression that returns the value, to be TRANSFORM'ed. The optional format codes enable additional control over the resulting string. The available format codes are enumerated and explained in the TRANSFORM() Function topic in the VFP Help file.

The @R format code is a little different that the others. It tells VFP to read a format mask and use it to format the resulting string. This is useful for formatting character or numeric data that may require a specific format, such as currency values, social security and FEIN numbers, and telephone numbers. The following example shows how to use TRANSFORM with @R and a format mask to format a U.S. phone number with area code in the conventional manner.

TRANSFORM( "2175551212", "@R (999) 999-9999")  && Result is "(217) 555-1212"

(Note that the space after @R is required to achieve the expected result.)

Phone numbers, however, are a good example of where you might want to use a different format mask in different situations. Assume a table with phone numbers stored in a character field. Depending on the data and how it was entered, the table might contain U.S. phone numbers with area codes, U.S. phone numbers without area codes, and international phone numbers. Assume the phone number column is wide enough to accommodate any of the anticipated possibilities.

CREATE TABLE myTable ( cPhoneNbr C(20))
INSERT INTO myTable ( cPhoneNbr) VALUES ( "2175551212")    && U.S. phone nbr w/ area code
INSERT INTO myTable ( cPhoneNbr) VALUES ( "5551212")       && U.S. phone nbr w/out area code
INSERT INTO myTable ( cPhoneNbr) VALUES ( "+46 704123456") && International phone nbr

A format mask of "@R (999) 999-9999" works for the first value but returns garbled results for the other two. For the U.S. phone number without an area code, a format mask showing a blank area code would be more appropriate, while for the international number it may be best to use no format mask at all and just display the number the way it was entered.

Assume the length of the unformatted phone number can be used to determine what type of phone number it is. Then in a method or procedure code a conditional statement like IF or CASE can be used to determine which format mask to apply.

lcPhoneNbr = ALLTRIM( myTable.cPhoneNbr)
DO CASE
  CASE LEN( lcPhoneNbr) = 10
   lcResult = TRANSFORM( lcPhoneNbr, "@R (999) 999-9999")
  CASE LEN( lcPhoneNbr) = 7
   lcResult = TRANSFORM( lcPhoneNbr, "@R (   ) 999-9999")
  OTHERWISE
   lcResult = lcPhoneNbr
ENDCASE

The problem with this is that it won't work in a report field, where a single expression is needed.

Fortunately, VFP enables conditional formatting within a single TRANSFORM by using a function for [cFormatCodes]. Leaving out the "myTable." prefix for brevity, the following can be used as a report field expression to get the desired result:

TRANSFORM( cPhoneNbr, ;
 ICASE( LEN( ALLTRIM( cPhoneNbr)) = 10, "@R (999) 999-9999", ;
        LEN( ALLTRIM( cPhoneNbr)) = 7, "@R (   ) 999-9999", ;
        ""))

If that seems a little long to stuff into an expression field, and it could get worse if there are more alternatives, the conditional code can be factored out to a UDF or to a method on some object and called from within the report field expression:

TRANSFORM( myTable.cPhoneNbr, GetPhoneNbrMask( myTable.cPhoneNbr))

The ability to use a function in place of a static format code enables us to extend the power of VFP by performing conditional formatting within a single TRANSFORM function.

Tags: Visual FoxPro, VFP

Password Agent 2.6

While discussing backup tools in my session on Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning at Southwest Fox 2009, I mentioned that I use a password management program call Password Agent from Moon Software. While probably less well known than some of its competitors, I've used this particular app for several years and have always found it to be reliable and easy to use. The only caveat was that it had not been updated in quite some time, but by coincidence a new version was just released yesterday. Among other changes this release is listed as compatible with Windows 7. If you're interested in a good password management tool, check out Password Agent 2.6 at www.moonsoftware.com/pwagent.asp.

Tags: Password Agent, Moon Software, Southwest Fox

Southwest Fox 2009 - Don't Miss It!

Hard to believe, but it's only a little over four months until Southwest Fox 2009, which will be held October 15-18, 2009 at the beautiful Arizona Golf Resort and Conference Center in Mesa, Arizona. Start making your plans now, because conference organizers Rick Schummer, Tamar Granor, and Doug Hennig have once again put together a great selection of speakers and topics for a conference that is not to be missed. I hope to see you all there!

Tags: Southwest Fox, SWFox, FoxPro

SWFox 2008 Session White Papers Published

My session white papers from Southwest Fox 2008, Hidden Treasures: The FoxPro Foundation Classes and Automating QuickBooks with QODBC, are now available for download from the FoxPro Developers page of my website.

Update [Sunday, 07-Jun-2009]: I posted the wrong links to these papers yesterday. The links are now correct.

Tags: Southwest Fox, SWFox, FoxPro

Restore Open Tabs in Internet Explorer 8

Unlike IE7, Internet Explorer 8 does not offer to remember open tabs on shutdown. But after re-launching IE8, you can restore them by going to Tools > Reopen Last Browsing Sesssion.

Tags: Internet Explorer 8, IE8

VFP Task Pane Tip

The Visual FoxPro Task Pane Environment Manager enables you to set up the environment you want to be associated with each project. Among other things, you can specify the project file, the default directory, the path, the resource file, and any environment settings that may be unique to each project.

When you click the link to a project file in the Task Pane Environment Manager, VFP applies your settings and opens the project. However, the Task Pane window remains open and visible on your screen. If you don't want the Task Pane window hanging around after your project has been opened, there's an easy way to make it disappear.

Select a project in the Environment Manager. Click on the icon to modify the environment set and select the Environment Settings page, as shown in the screenshot. Notice there are edit boxes for two scripts, one that runs before the environment is set and the other that runs after the environment is set and the project is loaded.

To automatically close the Task Pane window, simply add "_oTaskPane.Release( )" as the last or only line in the script that runs after the environment has been set and the project has been loaded. Click OK to save your changes. The next time you open the project from the Task Pane, the Task Pane window will automatically close after the Project Manager window opens and you'll have a clean screen to work with.

Tags: Visual FoxPro, VFP, Task Pane

SWFox 2007 session white papers published

In order not to diminish the value of attending the conference itself, I always wait at least six months before publishing the white papers from my presentations. I didn't really intend to wait 16 months to publish the papers from Southwest Fox 2007, though! In any case, Framework Fundamentals and So You Want to be an Independent Developer are now available for download from the FoxPro Developers page on my website.

Unless the year gets away from me again, look for the papers from my Southwest Fox 2008 sessions to be published sometime in late April.

Southwest Fox Session Evals

Today I finally found time to carefully read the evals from my sessions at Southwest Fox. Thanks to all of you who attended one of my sessions and took the time to comment. To those who had good things to say, thanks for the kind words. To those who suggested ways in which I can improve, I genuinely appreciate your suggestions.

A Speakers' Dilemma
One thing I always wrestle with is how much content to try to fit into the allotted time. Like most speakers, I try to provide maximum content and hence maximum value in all my presentations. Sometimes, however, that comes at the expense of not leaving enough time for questions. Several people commented that this was a problem with both my sessions at Southwest Fox this year, and I want to let you know that I hear you.

I generally ask that questions be held until the end of the session. The reason for this is to ensure there's enough time to cover all the material. You might be surprised at how easily taking the time to answer just a handful of questions during a session can derail a carefully timed presentation. However, I realize that if I ask for questions to be deferred until the end, I'm also making an implicit agreement with the audience to leave enough time for those questions.

So, here's my main take-away from this year's evals: I need to be sure to leave time for Q & A even if it means trimming the session content a bit. As I think about it, that's a better formula for maximizing the value of a session anyway, because all of us (speakers included) learn from each other's questions. Besides, the white paper provides a place to put relevant content that doesn't fit in the verbal presentation.

A Question
I think leaving around five minutes for Q & A at the end of a 75-minute session feels about right. Any less is almost certainly not enough, while significantly more means that much less session content. But that's just my opinion. What do you think?

An Apology
To the person who came up to me at the end of my Friday afternoon session on the FoxPro Foundation Classes: I apologize for putting you off and rushing out of the room. I had come down with some kind of 24-hour bug Thursday evening (and no, not from too much partying - really!). I was feeling pretty rocky all day Friday, and to be honest I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the entire Friday afternoon session. I came pretty close to losing it immediately after I finished speaking, and had to rush out of the room for a couple of minutes. When I got back, you had already left. If you are that person, I hope you will understand, and if you still have a question please e-mail me and I'll be happy to try to answer it.

Tags: Southwest Fox, SWFox, conferences, presentations

ZoneAlarm Pro for free

In celebration of the popular firewall's birthday, ZoneAlarm Pro is available for free, today only. http://tinyurl.com/6l3br7

Tags: ZoneAlarm

Stupid error message of the day

This is evidently all it takes to handle an error. Who said programming had to be hard?

MS Patch 951748 and Zone Alarm Issue

If you use Zone Alarm and Windows XP, don't install yesterday's MS security update #951748 'cause it breaks your Internet connection. The explanation and workaround is already posted on the ZA forum, see http://tinyurl.com/5k8zjs.

Side note: I posted this on Twitter late last night when I first ran into it and found the answer. After using Twitter for a couple of months, that seems to be where I turn first to post this kind of thing because it's easy to get the word out quickly. I'm still blogging, but some stuff now goes on Twitter first.

PowerDesk Pro 7

It looks like a new version of PowerDesk Pro is finally here.

PowerDesk has long been my favorite desktop file manager and replacement for Windows Explorer. But version 6, which was released in 2005 and last updated in 2006, has been feeling a little long in the tooth recently. Although clicking on its EasyUpdate link (on the Help menu) still says "You have the latest software version. No update is necessary.", I discovered today that the PowerDesk home page is now featuring PowerDesk Pro 7.

I haven't received any e-mail announcement of the new version yet, and I can't find any indication of upgrade pricing for licensed users of version 6 on their website, so this might be brand new. In any case, it's good to know this fine product is getting another update.

Tags: PowerDesk

Minimalist error message

"Just keep on movin', folks. Nothing to see here. Really, this is all you need to know. Anything else would only confuse you."

This is a real error dialog from a real app. Not a beta release, either. And no, I didn't capture the screenshot before the dialog was fully rendered - this is the whole thing. (I did add the caption, though.)

So we're not only left to wonder what the error was, but also what application had the error in the first place. Huh.

Beyond Compare v3 beta

Beyond Compare is one of those wonderful little utilities I use virtually every day. Version 2.x has been a terrific product for years, but it looks like it's going to get even better with Beyond Compare v3.

There's a lot of information about the new version on Scooter Software website. Check out what's coming in the screenshot gallery and the list of new features. Or if you want to you can actually download the beta and explore it for yourself.

Tags: Beyond Compare, Scooter Software

Tweeting

I've been trying out Twitter since last weekend. If you're already on Twitter you can follow rickborup. If not, you can go to http://twitter.com/ and sign up for a free account.

Tags: Twitter

Cool tool from Frank Perez

You learn something new every day. Today while reading Paul Mrozowski's blog I learned that not only does fellow VFP developer Frank Perez have a blog, he's also developed and published a very cool tool for Visual FoxPro developers.

Of all the tools in my developer's toolkit, the one I use most often (besides Visual FoxPro, of course) is probably Beyond Compare from Scooter Software. Besides its ability to compare and synchronize the contents of two different directories, Beyond Compare has a file comparison utility that lets you view two files side-by-side with their differences highlighted. This capability is extremely useful for analyzing the differences between two versions of text-based files such as Visual FoxPro PRG files.

While there are Beyond Compare plug-ins to facilitate comparisons between other, non-text based file types such as binary (hex) and image files, until now there was nothing designed to work specifically with non-text based Visual FoxPro files such as DBF, CDX, SCX, VCX, and so on.

Frank's new VFP file viewer rule and VFP2TEXT tool fill this void and enable you to use Beyond Compare's file comparison feature with Visual FoxPro's non-text based file types. Get the full story and the download link straight from the source on Frank's blog post. Nice job, Frank, and thanks for the "cool tool".

Tags: Visual Foxpro, VFP, Beyond Compare, Frank Perez, Paul Mrozowski

InstallShield Sold Again

Macrovision Corp. has announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its Software Business Unit to private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo. This may be of interest to Visual FoxPro developers and others because Macrovision's Software Business Unit includes the InstallShield® line of products, which Macrovision has owned since it acquired the original Installshield Software Corporation back in July of 2004.

The deal was announced on Feb. 14, 2008, almost a month ago. I'm a little surprised that, with one exception, this hasn't generated any chatter among the developers I know or on the blogs I read regularly. The only public mention of this that I'm aware of was Stefan Krüger's post on his InstallSite Blog the day after the official annoucement was made public.

Here are the official announcements from Macrovision and from TCB.

Tags: InstallShield, Macrovision

New goodies from Sysinternals

Today on Greg's Cool Thing of the Day, Greg Duncan blogs "It's a sunny day when we get a new Sysinternals utility". Not only a brand new utility, ShellRunas, but also updates to a couple of other favorites, Process Explorer and AutoRuns. On top of that, I discover there's a Sysinternals Site Discussion feed on TechNet Blogs where this kind of news gets posted directly from the source. A sunny day indeed.

Tags: Greg's Cool Thing of the Day, Sysinternals