Reading From and Writing to the Data Dictionary

Description

Alpha Anywhere's data dictionaries are actually tables; you can manipulate them just like any other table. To access the data dictionary of the current table or set directly, you can use the DICTIONARY.OPEN() method to obtain an object pointer to the dictionary.

All data dictionary files have the same table structure as follows:

Fieldname

Field Type

Description

NAME

Character

Name of the dictionary entry.

TYPE

Character

Type of entry.

CONTENTS_C

Character

Short data.

CONTENTS_M

Memo

Data storage (for layout, saved settings, or script.)

VENDOR

Memo

Binary version of data storage.

Each entry in the data dictionary is categorized by the contents of the TYPE field: a four character code such as FRMI (for a form) or BRW0 (for a browse). The types of layout and saved setting entries that you can find in a data dictionary and their corresponding four character codes are as follows:

Entry Type
Entry Code
Forms

FRMI

Browses

BRW0

Reports

REP0

Mail Labels

LBLI

Letters

LTR0

Queries

QBES

Ranges

RANG

Summaries

SMZS

Crosstabs

XTBS

Append

APND

Copy

COPY

Export

EXPT

Import

IMPT

Join

RLTN

Post

POST

Update

UPDT

See Also