>Ed,
>I apologize for being so amateurish, but if the Date Environment means that my freestanding tables are listed in the data section of the project manager (builder), then they are there. I guess that my question should be different: of all the tables listed in the data section, how does a report know which one (or ones) I want to use?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>Joe

Joe,

Please don't feel bad or embarrassed about your skill level. Remember, we've all been there and some of us still are - in some area. FoxPro has become a HUGE product and there are very few who know all the in's & outs.

Now.. About reports....

If I'm understanding you correctly you are confused about how to point a report at a particular table or set of data?

In the xBase language there are several ways to do this:

From the command window if you do the following:

USE MYTABLE

-or-

USE MYTABLE IN 0
SELECT MYTABLE

you are "pointed" at the table.

The word "SELECT" is what does the trick for you so in your code you could do something like:

IF NOT USED("MyTable")
USE MyTable in )
ENDIF

SELECT MyTable

REPORT FORM MyReport [to print] [preview]

And so forth.

Also, you might want to give some thought to the notion that when you create a report you have the choice of having the report "remember" what data is was pointed at. THis can be good or bad depending on your approach. Most developers I know do NOT associate any particular data environment with a specific report as it gives them runtime control so they can use one report with more than one set of data (as long as the data structures are all included in the report).

On the other hand, if you have the report "remember" the data environment then you don't have to.

You probably should read Microsoft's manual for FoxPro (it's actually pretty good!) and feel free to hang out here and ask as many questions as you'd like.

Does this help?

Best,

DD