REFORM

This option allows you to change characters and character combinations in your database and text files. If you choose the Reform option you will be given a dialogue box with the following entries:

File to reform - file to be reformed (either database or text)
Enter the expression(s) to change - list of expressions to change
Field (if the reformed file is a database); by default all fields are processed
Record (if the reformed file is a database); by default all records are processed

Suppose you have a file called span germ.dbf with a field GRM (for German) and you want to change all occurrences of "sch" to "«", and all occurrences of "ch" to "x". If you enter:

sch «;ch x in the list of expressions, all sch's will be changed to «'s, and all ch's to x's.

Remember that the order is significant here: if you enter

ch x;sch « all ch's will be changed to x's, but sch's will be changed to sx's, not «'s - because the sequence "ch" is being processed first.

It is recommended to backup your files before attempting to Reform them: the Reform procedure does not have any undo mechanism and you may accidentally ruin your data.

Be especially cautious trying to change sequences containing control characters like "\". It is highly recommended to use the xBase Chr() function in these cases. For example, if you wish to change the sequence "\B" to "\I" and "\b" to "\i" (bold to italic) you should write:

Chr(92)+"B" Chr(92)+"I";Chr(92)+"b" Chr(92)+"i" The sequence "\B \I;\b \i" will be processed incorrectly.

The function Chr() is convenient also when you want to process spaces (Chr(32)) or semicolons (Chr(59)) which otherwise will be understood as delimiters. E.g., if you wish to change the sequence "space + semicolon" to "space + comma", the expression

; , will be understood incorrectly and may ruin your data. The correct way to do it is: Chr(32)+Chr(59) Chr(32)+Chr(44)