>>>>Hello : I need some help please. I have to read tables created in FileMaker Pro Format but I could not find any ODBC or another tool that I can use from within a Visual Foxpro Program. Thanks for any help
>>>
>>>FileMakerPro allows to export data in DBF format.
>>True, but it can be dodgy unless the data is clean.
>>
>>What version of FileBreaker?? some of the older ones don't do DBF, but they will do tab delimited text.
>>
>>The real problem comes when the users have entered text with carriage returns into a text field, or used the multiple values option available in FileMaker.
>>
>>If you can give me more details I can probably give you more help. I'm currently attempting to export from FileMaker 2.1 on the Mac to VFP 3.0 on a PC. It would be a piece of cake if the FileMaker database had been designed, rather than just allowed to proliferate!!! =:0
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>>What I'm having to do is export subsets of of the data to TXT format and then rebuild it in VFP so as to get rid of the c**p that they've put in.
>>
>>Jen
>
>Yes, you are right. As I remember, Filemaker multiple values option will prevent adequate export data to DBF.


If you have a limited amount of data you can get quite a long way by exporting to a word processor (I use M$ Word) and doing global search and replaces to format the data (set up tabs to make the data readable)

Doing a number of partial exports as .TXT (remembering to include the unique record identifier on each export) fixing the text files and then appending into a .DBF is probably the safest way to go. It is time-consuming and you need to be (or have available) a picky proofreader, but it'll almost certainly work.

You can also write basic programs to read the data a byte at a time and reformat it..... =:0

Jen