Question

Seek not finding

Asked by: stanmurphy

Hello all,

I'm going to lose my mind if someone can't figure this out for me.

I'm using VFP9 SP2 on Win7 Ultimate x64.

In my code I select records from a DBF into a cursor. I then scan the cursor and do a seek into another DBF to find records with matching keys. If found, I update the fields that are common to both the cursor and the related DBF (at this point the only field is APPTNUM).

The problem is that the SEEK is not finding the matching key in the second file. And I don't know why.

I've added a SUSPEND after the seek and manually compared the two fields with
? APPTHOLD.apptnum=APPT_DISPLAY_INFO.apptnum and I get .T. so I don't understand why the SEEK fails.

And the really wierd thing is that when I SEEK the other way, from APPT_DISPLAY_INFO into APPTHOLD, it works!

There's only one record in the cursor as I'm still testing so there isn't a lot of complexity here.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

*** DTP is a DateTimePicker on the main form. 
PRIVATE ldHoldDate
ldHoldDate = TTOD(apptform.DTP.VALUE) 
SELECT * FROM appt.dbf; 
	where appt.apptdate = ldHoldDate INTO CURSOR APPTHOLD ORDER BY APPT.APPTNUM
	
SELECT appt_display_info
SET ORDER TO APPTNUM   && APPTNUM 
SELECT APPTHOLD 
SCAN 
	SEEK APPTHOLD.APPTNUM IN APPT_DISPLAY_INFO 
	IF FOUND()
		LOOP
	ELSE
		APPEND BLANK IN APPT_DISPLAY_INFO
		REPLACE NEXT 1 APPT_DISPLAY_INFO.APPTNUM WITH APPTHOLD.APPTNUM
	ENDIF
ENDSCAN
                                  
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Asked On
2009-11-06 at 02:10:12ID24877410
Tags

Visual Foxpro

Topic

FoxPro Database

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: Olaf_DoschkePosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:34:27ID: 25757969

what after a reindex? Is the APPTNUM index in the cdx file of the appt_display_info table or is it a seperate idx index file? idx indexes must be opened manually and will get out of sync if that's not done, that would be a reason you wouldn't find a record with a seek, while it's there in the table.

Even a CDX index can get out of sync, for example if the cdx file is readonly. Or if the cdx is from an earlier backup. So please check that and REINDEX, directly afterwards this should not be a problem anymore.

One other reason coming to mind: Are the two fields apptnum in appt_display_info and in appt (the origin of the appthold cursor) the same type and size? If not that may be a reason the seek doesn't find values.

Bye, Olaf.

 

by: Olaf_DoschkePosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:36:20ID: 25757977

for example: If apptnum is a c(10) field in appt.dbf, but a c(8) field in appt_display_info.dbf, you wouldn't find any match, as you seek a c(10) string in a c(8) field. Vice versa it would still work, that's also what you have seen, so perhaps that's the reason.

Bye, Olaf.

 

by: stanmurphyPosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:42:57ID: 25758004

Both fields are integers, identical in every respect, even name.

And the indexes are CDX's.

And yes, I reindexed APPT_DISPLAY_INFO, to no avail.


 

by: stanmurphyPosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:51:59ID: 25758039

Another odd thing I've noticed is that even though the APPT table only has one record in it and, by extension, the APPTHOLD cursor only has one record in it, after the program stops the APPT_DISPLAY_INFO file has two records. One has an APPTNUM of zero and the other has the proper value of the single record in APPTHOLD.

Why would that record with an APPTNUM of zero be created?

 

by: stanmurphyPosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:56:45ID: 25758071

Just to clarify what's happening, the SCAN is running properly and on the first run through the code the APPEND...REPLACE is creating records in the APPT_DISPLAY_INFO file.

Then, I have a timer on my main form that calls the code again after about 10 seconds.

When the SCAN runs the second time, the SEEK fails to find the existing record in APPT_DISPPLAY_INFO, tries to add it again, and I get a an error because APPTNUM is a Primary key field and must be unique.

 

by: pcelbaPosted on 2009-11-06 at 03:24:42ID: 25758197

Looking at your code, you are SEEKing in another work area then testing SEEK result by FOUND()...

Try this:
SEEK APPTHOLD.APPTNUM IN APPT_DISPLAY_INFO
IF FOUND("APPT_DISPLAY_INFO")

and it should work.

 

by: stanmurphyPosted on 2009-11-06 at 03:28:16ID: 31650958

Of course it works!! It worked the last time I remembered to do it as well hehe.

Many thanks.

Hopefully I won't forget it again!

 

by: pcelbaPosted on 2009-11-06 at 03:29:10ID: 25758212

BTW, i would change the logic of your code following way:

*** DTP is a DateTimePicker on the main form. 
PRIVATE ldHoldDate
ldHoldDate = TTOD(apptform.DTP.VALUE) 
SELECT * FROM appt.dbf; 
	where appt.apptdate = ldHoldDate INTO CURSOR APPTHOLD ORDER BY APPT.APPTNUM
	
SELECT appt_display_info
SET ORDER TO APPTNUM   && APPTNUM 
SELECT APPTHOLD 
SCAN 
  IF SEEK(APPTHOLD.APPTNUM, "APPT_DISPLAY_INFO") 
    LOOP
  ELSE
    INSERT INTO APPT_DISPLAY_INFO (APPTNUM) VALUES (APPTHOLD.APPTNUM)
  ENDIF
ENDSCAN
                                              
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by: pcelbaPosted on 2009-11-06 at 03:32:24ID: 25758228

And I have to agree with Olaf - SEEK fails to find the record sometimes. It can even happen when index is correctly created on cursor raised from SQLEXEC(). In such case only LOCATE NOOPTIMIZE works without problems.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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