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Visual FoxPro

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Microsoft Visual FoxPro
Typical VFP9 editing session
Author	Microsoft Corporation
Latest release	Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) / October 11, 2007
OS	Microsoft Windows
Platform	x86 and greater
Natural language(s)	IDE: English, German, Spanish Runtime: Above, French, Chinese, Russian, Czech, Korean
Status	Maintenance mode
Genre	Database Programming language
License	Microsoft EULA
Website	msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro

Visual FoxPro is a data-centric object-oriented and procedural programming language produced by Microsoft. It is derived from FoxPro (originally known as FoxBASE) which was developed by Fox Software beginning in 1984. Fox Technologies merged with Microsoft in 1992 and the software acquired further features and the prefix "Visual". The last version of FoxPro (2.6) worked under Mac OS, DOS, Windows, and Unix: Visual FoxPro 3.0, the first "Visual" version, dropped the platform support to only Mac and Windows, and later versions were Windows-only. The current version of Visual FoxPro is COM-based and Microsoft has stated that they do not intend to create a Microsoft .NET version. FoxPro originated as a member of the class of languages commonly referred to as "xBase" languages, which have syntax based on the dBase programming language. Other members of the xBase language family include Clipper and Recital. (A history of the early years of xBase can be found in the dBASE entry.) Visual FoxPro, commonly abbreviated as VFP, is tightly integrated with its own relational database engine, which extends FoxPro's xBase capabilities to support SQL query and data manipulation. Unlike most database management systems, Visual FoxPro is a full-featured, dynamic programming language that does not require the use of an additional general-purpose programming environment. It can be used to write not just traditional "fat client" applications, but also middleware and web applications.

1 Recent History
2 Version information
- 2.1 Operating system compatibility
- 2.2 Information on Executable Files
3 Code samples
4 Beta code names
5 References
6 External links
- 6.1 Microsoft pages
- 6.2 Other pages

Recent History

In late 2002, some community members demonstrated that Visual FoxPro can run on Linux under the Wine Windows compatibility suite. In 2003, this led to complaints by Microsoft: it was claimed that the deployment of runtime FoxPro code on non-Windows machines violates the End User License Agreement.^[1] In December 2005, VFP broke into the top 20 on TIOBE's Programming Community Index for the first time. In March 2007 it was at position 19, making it a "B" language, and as of August 7, 2007 it dropped into position 22. In March 2007, Microsoft announced "that there will be no VFP 10"^[2], thus making VFP9 (released to manufacturing on December 17, 2004) the last commercial VFP release from Microsoft. The support of Version 9 is ongoing with service packs that were released December 8, 2005 and October 11, 2007. At the time of the end of life announcement, work on the next release codenamed Sedna which was built on top of the VFP9 codebase had already begun. "Sedna" is a set of addons to VFP 9.0 of XBase components to support a number of interoperability scenarios with various Microsoft technologies including SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework, Windows Vista, Office 2007, Windows Search and Team Foundation Server (TFS). Microsoft plans to release Sedna under the Shared source license on the CodePlex site. Microsoft has clarified that the VFP core will still remain closed source. Meanwhile, some of the FoxPro-related technology can be seen in other Microsoft products such as SQL Server, Team Foundation Server and various portions of the .Net Framework. In late March 2007 a grassroots campaign was started by the Spanish-speaking FoxPro community at MasFoxPro (MoreFoxPro in English) to sign a petition to Microsoft to continue updating Visual FoxPro or release it to the community as Open Source. On April 3, 2007 the movement was noted by the technical press.^[3] Also on April 3, 2007 Microsoft responded to the petitioner's requests with this statement from Alan Griver:

"We're very aware of the FoxPro community and that played a large part in what we announced on March 13th. It's never an easy decision to announce that we're not going to release another version of a product and it's one that we consider very carefully.

"We're not announcing the end of FoxPro: Obviously, FoxPro applications will continue to work. By some of our internal estimates, there are more applications running in FoxPro 2.6 than there are in VFP and FoxPro 2.6 hasn't been supported in many years. Visual FoxPro 9 will be supported by Microsoft through 2015.

"For Microsoft to continue to evolve the FoxPro base, we would need to look at creating a 64-bit development environment and that would involve an almost complete rewrite of the core product. We've also invested in creating a scalable database with SQL Server, including the freely available SQL Server Express Edition. As far as forming a partnership with a third-party is concerned, we've heard from a number of large FoxPro customers that this would make it impossible for them to continue to use FoxPro since it would no longer be from an approved vendor. We felt that putting the environment into open source on CodePlex, which balances the needs of both the community and the large customers, was the best path forward."

Version information

Operating system compatibility

**Supported Windows Versions**
Version	VFP 3.0	VFP 5.0	VFP 6.0	VFP 7.0	VFP 8.0	VFP 9.0
Windows 3.x	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Windows NT 4.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No ^[4]	No ^[5]
Windows 95	Yes	Yes	Yes	Runtime only	No ^[6]	No
Windows 98	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Runtime only	Runtime only
Windows Me	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Runtime only	Runtime only
Windows 2000	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows XP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2003	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Vista	?	See Note^[7]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Information on Executable Files

Version	VERSION() returns	EXE Size	EXE Date	DLL Size	DLL Name
VFP 9 SP2	Visual FoxPro 09.00.0000.5721 for Windows	5,648 kb	September 21, 2007	4,624 kb	VFP9R.DLL
VFP 9	Visual FoxPro 09.00.0000.2412 for Windows	5,620 kb	December 13, 2004	4,600 kb	VFP9R.DLL
VFP 8	Visual FoxPro 08.00.0000.3117 for Windows	5,236 kb	September 25, 2003	4,200 kb	VFP8R.DLL
VFP 7	Visual FoxPro 07.00.0000.9465 for Windows	4,260 kb	January 4, 2002	3,344 kb	VFP7R.DLL
VFP 6	Visual FoxPro 06.00.8961.00 for Windows	4,091 kb	August 18, 2000	3,295 kb	VFP6R.DLL
VFP 5	Visual FoxPro 5.0.0.415 for Windows	4,065 kb	January 24, 1997	3,148 kb	VFP500.DLL
VFP 3	Visual FoxPro 03.00.00.0711 for Windows	4,374 kb	December 16, 1995	3,657 kb	VFP300.ESL
FPW 2.6a	FoxPro 2.6a for Windows	2,444 kb	September 28, 1994	n/a	n/a

Code samples

Hello World example: <source lang="visualfoxpro"> MESSAGEBOX("Hello World") </source>

Object

<source lang="visualfoxpro"> loForm = CREATEOBJECT("HiForm") loForm.Show(1) DEFINE CLASS HiForm AS Form

 AutoCenter = .T.
 Caption = "Hello, World"
 ADD OBJECT lblHi as Label WITH ;
   Caption = "Hello, World!"

ENDDEFINE </source> <source lang="visualfoxpro"> loMine = CREATEOBJECT("MyClass") ? loMine.cProp1 && This will work. (Double-ampersand marks an end-of-line comment) ? loMine.cProp2 && Program Error: Property CPROP2 is not found. ? loMine.MyMethod1() && This will work. ? loMine.MyMethod2() && Program Error: Property MYMETHOD2 is not found. DEFINE CLASS MyClass AS Custom

 cProp1 = "My Property"    && This is a public property
 HIDDEN cProp2     && This is a private (hidden) property
 PROCEDURE Init()    && Class constructor
   This.cProp2 = "This is a hidden property."
 ENDPROC
 PROCEDURE MyMethod1()
   * This is a public method, calling a hidden method that returns
   * the value of a hidden property.
   RETURN This.MyMethod2()
 ENDPROC
 HIDDEN PROCEDURE MyMethod2()  && This is a private (hidden) method
   RETURN This.cProp2
 ENDPROC

ENDDEFINE </source>

Data handling

<source lang="visualfoxpro"> && Create a table CREATE TABLE randData (iData I) && Populate with random data using xBase and SQL DML commands FOR i = 1 TO 50

   APPEND BLANK
   REPLACE iData WITH (RAND() * 100)
   INSERT INTO randData (iData) VALUES (RAND() * 100)

ENDFOR && Place a structural index on the data INDEX ON iData TAG iData CLOSE ALL && Display sorted data using xBase-style commands USE randData SET ORDER TO iData GO TOP LIST NEXT 10 && First 10 SKIP 81 LIST NEXT 10 && Last 10 CLOSE ALL && Browse sorted data using SQL DML commands SELECT * ;

 FROM randData ;
 ORDER BY iData DESCENDING

</source>

ODBC Access using SQL Passthrough

<source lang="visualfoxpro"> && Connect to an ODBC data source LOCAL nHnd nHnd = SQLCONNECT ("ODBCDSN", "user", "pwd") && Execute a SQL command LOCAL nResult nResult = SQLEXEC (nHnd, "USE master") IF nResult < 0

 MESSAGEBOX ("MASTER database does not exist!")
 RETURN

ENDIF && Retrieve data from the remote server and stores it in && a local data cursor nResult = SQLEXEC (nHnd, "SELECT * FROM authors", "QAUTHORS") && Update a record in a remote table using parameters LOCAL cAuthorID, cAuthorName cAuthorID = "1001" cAuthorName = "New name" nResult = SQLEXEC (nHnd, "UPDATE authors SET auth_name = ?cAuthorName WHERE auth_id = ?cAuthorID") && Close the connection SQLDISCONNECT(nHnd) </source>

Beta code names

VFP 3 - Taz
VFP 5 - RoadRunner
VFP 6 - Tahoe
VFP 7 - Sedona
VFP 8 - Toledo
VFP 9 - Europa
VFP Next - Sedna

References

^ http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFPandLinux
^ A Message to the Community
^ http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=361
^ - VFP8 applications are not supported but can be run under Windows NT 4.0
^ - The free patch for VFP 9.0 has been created by the German FoxPro User Group (dFPUG) and is available at the dFPUG document portal in the directory http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Dokumente/Freeware/. It allows you to run VFP 9.0 applications on NT 4.0. Microsoft has indicated that this will be addressed in VFP 9.0 SP1.
^ - The second-level menus don't work under Windows 95.
^ Functionally works, however, performance is so slow that it is not worth the effort.