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Importing and Exporting Concepts

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You can choose from three ways to copy data into or out of Visual FoxPro:

  1. Importing
  2. Appending
  3. Exporting

When you import or append data, you bring the data from another application into Visual FoxPro. When you export data, you send data from a Visual FoxPro table to a file type used by another application. These methods allow you to copy and use, rather than link or share, the data.

When you import data, you copy data from a source file, create a new table, and populate the table with the file's data. For example, you can import the data from a dBASE table to create a Visual FoxPro table. After importing a file, you can use it like any other Visual FoxPro table.

When you append data, you add the source data to a Visual FoxPro table after the last record in the table. You can specify fields to import and select records that meet a condition in an expression. After appending from the file, you can view and edit the records in the Visual FoxPro table.

When you export, you copy data from a Visual FoxPro table into a new file formatted for use in another application. For example, you can export Visual FoxPro data to a Microsoft Excel worksheet file.

You select the source and destination files. You can also specify fields to export, set the scope of records to export, and select records that meet a condition.

See Also

Importing and Exporting Data | The Process of Importing Data | Importing Data with the Import Wizard | Importing Data into a New Table | Importing from Lotus 1-2-3 | The Process of Appending Data | The Process of Exporting Data