visual foxpro for windows 8

Question

I have foxpro data table files ".dbf",".fpt",".cdx" . I want to read data in the files and import it to SQL server 2008

I have windows 8 OS installed on my machine. I could not find compatible visual foxpro version for windows 8. Also I have used dbfviewer tool to view data in .dbf file but I cannot check data in .fpt file

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

In Windows 7, I can create an ODBC connection to a Foxpro data source. I don't know if that capability still exists in Windows 8, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

Once that connection exists, the data becomes available for any other tool that can utilize ODBC. At that point, you could import the data into Excel, massage it, then load it into SQL Server. Alternatively, you could also access the data directly via VBScript to either dump it to a text file or import it directly into SQL Server.

Answer 2

You can also use DBF Commander Pro to export DBF files to SQL Server. To carry out this operation, you'll only need DBF and FPT files - they contain data of Memo field(s). CDX files are not needed since VFPOLEDB provider doesn't support indexes at all.

Install the app, open a DBF file, click File -> Export to DBMS. Then provide the connection string (or Build it). For MS SQL Server 2008 it will look as follows:

Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=userid;Initial Catalog=databasename;Data Source=servername

Click Connect button in order to check the connection, then choose the destination table from the dropdown list:

At the bottom of the window you'll see the command-line that can be used for uploading DBFs to a database in a batch mode. Click Export button to start the process.

DBF Commander Pro has 20-days full featured trial period, so you can do the job for free and you'll economize $300 on Visual FoxPro license :)

Answer 3

You only need to worry about the DBF file.

As noted in Microsoft's online documentation, Visual FoxPro's DBF, FPT, and CDX files are "Table", "Table Memo", and "Compound Index", respectively.

The DBF is the "core" file, containing the description of the fields as well as the information about each record and the actual data for most data types. For FoxPro's memo-style data types, the information for each record is written onto the equivalent FPT file instead of the DBF itself.

The CDX is a record of the FoxPro indexes, and rather that containing data just contains compiled and ordered pointers to which records match which indexed expressions.

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You could purhcase a copy of Visual FoxPro 9, as it seems to work on Windows 8 albeit with some quirks. However, if you only want the data and do not have an exist VFP license, you are better off using the free OLE provider DRapp mentioned in his answer, and sending your data to a more modern format.

Answer 4

I don't know why people want to close an legit question... My guess they have no clue.

I am running windows 8.1 and use VFP 9 regularly. It may not claim to be directly compatible because M$ has discontinued support on the product, so why even test on platforms they have no concern with. Have you tried VFP9?

Another approach some people use is downloading the VFP OleDb Provider and use it via .net, or even through SQL-Server to use a connection, query the raw data into SQL Server, then run through conversion techniques while everything IS in SQL server.

VFP 9 also has from its top-level menu

Tools --> Wizards --> Upsizing

and guides you through how to pick either a directory of free tables, or pick a database and identify which server to connect to, etc, etc.

Hopefully some good starting points for you to run with and check back if you get stuck somewhere else down stream...