ISAMCVT.EXE Fails to Convert db/LIB File, Try Packing First (59765)

SUMMARY

A customer reported that when converting db/LIB (dBASE) files to Microsoft Visual Basic for MS-DOS, version 1.0 or Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) for MS-DOS, version 7.0 ISAM files with the ISAMCVT.EXE utility, the ISAM files are not created correctly if the db/LIB file contains logically deleted records. For the process to be successful, the logically deleted records must be physically removed from the file. According to the customer, db/LIB provides a packing feature to do this.

MORE INFORMATION

The utility ISAMCVT.EXE is used to convert other types of indexed files to Basic's ISAM format. One of these types is db/LIB. A customer reported that if the db/LIB file to be converted has records in it that are marked for deletion, ISAMCVT.EXE either produces a corrupted ISAM file or does not produce one at all.

Packing an indexed file is a method of physically removing records that are marked for deletion. The utility ISAMPACK.EXE is used to perform this function on Basic's ISAM files. According to the customer, using a similar utility on a db/LIB file that has records marked for deletion allows ISAMCVT.EXE to successfully convert the file to the ISAM format.

Microsoft has not verified this information, but it is recommended to pack all data files before they are converted to Microsoft Visual Basic for MS-DOS or Microsoft Basic PDS ISAM with the ISAMCVT.EXE utility.