.fpt file conversion

[Marie]

Hello,

I have to convert fox pro tables to an Access database. I have 6 tables that
are giving me problems because they have a corresponding .ftp file. I know
these files contain "memos" but how can I actually get to those records and
know which one belongs with which record in the corresponding .dbf file?
I was able to read some of the data by opening it in Word, but a lot of it
was gibberish also. I have tried to export/import it to Access & Excell but
neither worked. I am at a loss now.

Please help!

Thanks in advance.
Marie

[Rick Bean]

Marie,
The Memo file (.FPT) should only be accessed through the corresponding .DBF
file. There will be one or more data fields of type Memo in each record,
this field is simply a pointer into the Linked Memo file (VFP or ODBC will
automatically take care of this for you). Normally you just need to treat
the memo field as a varible length character field. You have a couple
options on this conversion.
1) Have Access attach to these tables and just "move" the data over to your
MDB. (Depending on whether these are "old" Fox2.x DBFs or VFP DBFs, you can
use Jet directly for the first and ODBC for the second.) The last VFP ODBC
client is included in MDAC 2.5 (http://www.microsoft.com/data/), or go to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/downloads/odbc.asp and get the latest (and
last) VFP ODBC driver.

2) In VFP, you can Export the data to a text file and then Import it into
Access. The best available technique for the Export (at least that I've
found) is the code in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q241424 - "HOWTO:
Export Memo Fields with Other Field Types to a Text File (Q241424)".

3) You can use VFP AND Access. Go to the UT (http://www.universalthread.com)
click on the Download picture on the left, and choose the Visual FoxPro
area. Next enter 'DBC2MDB' (without the quotes) in the Title area and press
Enter. You should get back an entry for:

"DBC2MDB - Fox to Access Downsizer January 16, 2001 13:30
The Upsizing Wizards in VFP help us move our data and database schema to
Oracle or SQL Server. But what about "downsizing" to Access? DBC2MDB is a
wizard that allows you to move your database and table structure to a new or
existing MDB and, optionally, move the data itself."

Rick

"Marie" <mws323@excite.com> wrote in message news:3cb481e4$1@10.1.10.29...
>
> Hello,
>
> I have to convert fox pro tables to an Access database. I have 6 tables
that
> are giving me problems because they have a corresponding .ftp file. I know
> these files contain "memos" but how can I actually get to those records
and
> know which one belongs with which record in the corresponding .dbf file?
> I was able to read some of the data by opening it in Word, but a lot of it
> was gibberish also. I have tried to export/import it to Access & Excell
but
> neither worked. I am at a loss now.
>
> Please help!
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Marie