DOCUMENT:Q130298  14-AUG-1999  [foxpro]
TITLE   :INFO: Cursors and the Data Environment on Forms and Reports
PRODUCT :Microsoft FoxPro
PROD/VER:
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:kbDesigner kbvfp300 kbvfp500 kbvfp600

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 5.0, 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

When you add a table or view to the data environment of a form or report in
Visual FoxPro, you may notice that the table is referred to as a cursor. This
may be confusing for developers who are accustomed to the version 2.x definition
of a cursor as a temporary table.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The cursor referred to in the data environment is a "cursor object." By adding
the table or view as an object, you gain several advantages. During design time,
you can specify values for several properties including Exclusive, Alias,
ReadOnly, NoDataOnLoad and others. By modifying these properties at design time,
control is gained over the behavior of the data within the form, without having
to close and reopen files. At run-time, these properties can provide useful
information.

A cursor object also has three events (Init, Destroy, and Error). This allows
encapsulation of code for each table. You might want to create one table if it
does not exist when opened, but generate a dialog box for the user if unable to
connect to a remote view in the same form or report.

The cursor object does not create a temporary table. If you modify data, the
changes affect the table directly unless buffering is enabled. If buffering is
enabled, changes are written to a buffer until they are applied to the source
table or view.

REFERENCES
==========

For more information on the cursor object, please see the Visual FoxPro Help
file.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kbDesigner kbvfp300 kbvfp500 kbvfp600 
Technology        : kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbVFP300 kbVFP500 kbVFP600
Issue type        : kbinfo

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