Advanced

dBASE III Plus

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Objectives 1

Review of dBase III Basics 2

Terms 3

Common Commands 3

HELP Mode Menus 4

File Extensions 5

Function Key Macros 6

Memory Variables 7

Customizing dBase 8

Fancy Editing Screens 9

dBase Programs (Command Files) 11

Accept/Input 12

Looping 13

If..Endif 14

DO CASE...ENDCASE 16

Menu-Driven Systems 17

Menu Making 18

Programming Guidelines 20

Debugging Programs 21

dBase Debugging Tools 22

Database Design 23

Using Multiple Files 24

Advanced Reports 25

Special Printing Commands 26

Functions 27

File Conversions 28

dBase III Plus 28

Users Groups / Magazines/ Books 29

Working With dBase 29

dBase Commands 30

dBASE File Extensions 31

Sample File 32

Introduction

The purpose of this course is to help those people who already have some knowledge of dBase III to get more out of it. Borland's dBase III+ is a powerful database management program with many features that are not immediately obvious to the new user. In this course we will investigate some of the advanced capabilities of this software.

This text is divided into five main sections including the creation of screen programs, multiple relations, advanced queries, menu programs, and programming constructs.

This 2 day course is intended for those who have taken the Introductory course, or who have experience working with dBase on a day to day basis. The class exercises provide "hands-on" experience in using the dBase commands. More than 70% of class time is hands-on use of dBase.

Objectives

By the end of this seminar participants will have:

1 Become familiar with advanced database management terminology

2 Learned the basic concepts of database programming and design

3 Written programs in the dBase III programming language

4 Created a menu-driven database system

5 Used the dBase III debugging tools

6 Manipulated multiple files in different ways

7 Designed advanced reports using the dBase report generator