Limitations of View Designer vs. CREATE SQL VIEW Command

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows 5.0

SUMMARY

The View Designer in Visual FoxPro is a useful tool for creating views. This article discusses a couple of limitations on creating views with the View Designer versus creating views programmatically using the CREATE SQL VIEW command.

MORE INFORMATION

The following limitations exist when creating views with the View Designer:

1. The View Designer is unable to load any views that have a sub-select in the filter.

   Example:

   CREATE VIEW view1 AS SELECT order_id FROM orders ;

           WHERE order_id IN (SELECT order_id FROM order_line_items)
   
   

2. With the new JOIN feature, views that are built with joins in the View Designer must be built in a specific manner:

   Example 1: 3 tables: tableA, tableB, tableC

                  CORRECT: tableA -> tableB -> tableC
   
      CREATE VIEW view1 AS SELECT * FROM tableA ;
        INNER JOIN tableB INNER JOIN tableC ON ;
        tableB.linkcol = tableC.linkcol ON ;
        tableA.linkcol = tableB.linkcol
   
      Example 2: 3 tables: tableA, tableB, tableC
                  INCORRECT : tableA -> tableB,  tableA -> tableC
   
      CREATE VIEW view1 AS SELECT * FROM tableA ;
        INNER JOIN tableB INNER JOIN tableC ON ;
        ON tableA.linkcol = tableC.linkcol ON ;
        tableA.linkcol = tableB.linkcol