>>I have a bunch of DBFs with older style DBT memo files.
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>>I'd like to access the DBFs but keep getting the "Convert memo file?" prompt. I don't actually need to look at the memo fields, and I don't want to convert them, since they are primarily used by an old FoxBase program.. Is there some way to get FoxPro to ignore the memo field? Something like:
>>
>> USE myfile NO MEMO
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>>I know I can do things like fiddling with the first byte of the file header, but I'd rather not do that.
>>
>>Any ideas?
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>
>I suggest making a copy of both files and work with the copy. Let VFP convert the memo field. At that point, if you want, you could modify the structure to remove the memo field from the copy.

Another alternative would be to use ODBC to access the free tables; this would allow a single copy of the file to be accessed and updated by both the VFP application (through a view in a DBC based on an ODBC connection) and the older Foxbase program through its standard methodologies. I've used this type of ODBC connection in the past to connect to older dBASE files on an ongoing basis with good results, so that indexes could be maintained in the older dBASE .NDX file format.