Overview of the Language

  • Article

Visual FoxPro is a tool for developing applications for cataloging, tracking, and processing information. Although you can perform many database tasks through the Visual FoxPro interface, accessing the power of Visual FoxPro requires some knowledge of the Visual FoxPro programming language.

Like other programming languages, Visual FoxPro makes it possible for you to work with various types of data, such as numbers and character strings. You can store data of these various types in tables, arrays, variables, and other data containers. To manipulate the data, you can perform operations, such as addition and concatenation. In addition to the operators, Visual FoxPro provides a rich set of commands and functions, so you can protect, display, and manage your data.

In This Section

  • Data and Field Types
    All Visual FoxPro data has a type — a description of the permissible values and range and size of those values.
  • Data Storage Containers
    You choose a data storage container according to the amount and type of data and how you want to use it.
  • Operators
    Operators make it possible for you to manipulate data of the same type.
  • Expression Building
    Visual FoxPro expressions combine data and operators to create a value of a given data type.
  • Data Manipulation
    The expressions you can build give you full access to the power of manipulating data in Visual FoxPro.
  • Language Reference A-Z
    This section contains a list of language reference topics in alphabetical order.
  • Naming Conventions
    Choose names for exposed objects, properties, and methods that can be understood easily by users of the application.
  • Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
    This section includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.
  • Programming in Visual FoxPro
    Visual FoxPro is a powerful interactive data management tool, but you also can access the full power of Visual FoxPro by creating applications. Understanding object-oriented programming techniques and the event-driven model can maximize your programming productivity.
  • Visual FoxPro and Other Programming Languages
    Most programming languages have similar basic features.