PRB: ODBC to Lotus Notes Does Not Bring in Numeric Data

 Last reviewed: April 30, 1996
Article ID: Q123006
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0
  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0
  • Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, versions 2.5 2.5a 2.5b 2.6

SYMPTOMS

Under certain conditions, you may not be able to use ODBC to retrieve numeric data. Null values are returned when you try to bring numeric data into a FoxPro cursor or table by using the Lotus Notes ODBC driver to connect to a Lotus Notes database from FoxPro for Windows. Text and date data, however, are brought in successfully.

NOTE: Lotus Notes is manufactured by a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

A Lotus Notes numeric data type will be mapped to an ODBC SQL SQL_FLOAT data type. This is the same data type the SQL Server FLOAT data types are mapped to and FoxPro is able to successfully bring down FLOAT data from an SQL Server. This would indicate that FoxPro might be able to bring in numeric data successfully from Lotus Notes.

Mapping SQL Tables, Views, and Indexes to and from Notes

When connecting to a Lotus Notes database, it's helpful to know the following information:

  • Each SQL table is derived from a Notes form.
  • Each SQL index is derived from a Notes view. Sorted columns in the Notes view map to fields in a single form. A Notes view selects documents from that single form.
  • Each SQL view is derived from a Notes view that selects documents through a single form.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

  1. Set up the Lotus Notes ODBC driver through ODBC Setup. See the Lotus Notes help file for more information.

  2. Using DBConnect (SQLCONNECT in Visual FoxPro), connect to a Lotus Notes database (.NSF File) that has a form with a numeric field on it. The User identifier and Password may be an empty string (specified by "").

  3. Issue a DBExec from FoxPro(SQLEXEC in Visual FoxPro), passing a simple SQL SELECT command to the database file. Notice that the results from this command indicate that records have been selected even though the command returns an error number of -1. Using DBError (AError in Visual FoxPro) returns neither an error number nor an error message.

The commands for steps 2 and 3 will be similar to this: 

   handle = DBCONNECT("<Data Source Name>","","")
   && handle = SQLCONNECT("<Data Source Name>","","") in Visual FoxPro
   ?DBEXEC(handle,"<Form Name>")
   && SQLEXEC((handle,"<Form Name>") in Visual FoxPro
<Data Source Name> is specified in the Lotus ODBC Setup and <Form Name> is a Form that was created inside Lotus Notes. The records will be blank for the numeric field in the cursor that was returned.

REFERENCES

Lotus ODBC Driver help file (NOTESSQL.HLP).

Additional reference words: VFoxWin 3.00 FoxWin 2.50 2.50a 2.50b 2.60
KBCategory: kb3rdparty kbprb
KBSubcategory: FxinteropOdbc

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Last reviewed: April 30, 1996
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