{
  "id": "1997-january-use-foxpro-to-document-a-table",
  "slug": "1997-january-use-foxpro-to-document-a-table",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-january-use-foxpro-to-document-a-table.html",
  "year": 1997,
  "month": "January",
  "monthNum": 1,
  "headline": "Use FoxPro to document a table",
  "kicker": "Tech Tip",
  "author_name": "Richard Mullins",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Missouri School of Journalism",
  "summary": "A technical tip explaining how to use FoxPro's 'copy structure extended' command to document database layouts and create data dictionaries.",
  "keywords": [
    "FoxPro",
    "database",
    "documentation"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Data & Databases",
    "Technology"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "FoxPro"
  ],
  "full_text": "One of the paper essentials in computer-assisted reporting is the record layout. However, after you have created a table in FoxPro, it is very easy to document its structure, add in the data dictionary and even include narrative explanations of fields and stuff, all in one single file. You can do this by creating a structure description table from the data table and adding fields and information to it. Here's how to do it. First, with the desired data table open, use this FoxPro command to create the structure table: copy structure extended to NewTable. The table, NewTable, contains fields like Field_name, Field_len, Field_type, and Field_dec. You also can add fields to NewTable to help further document the original table- just be sure to add fields to the end. The most useful field to add might be a description field of 30 or 40 characters, since the 10-character field name limit in FoxPro can require cryptic names. You can also create a memo field for longer comments. This keeps the structure table usable for the next step - creating a new table based on the structure table: create NewTableName from StructureTableName.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1998-april-foxpro-to-access-and-back-again",
      "score": 0.289
    },
    {
      "slug": "1997-may-cheating-at-foxpro",
      "score": 0.28
    },
    {
      "slug": "1994-june-fixing-data-in-foxpro",
      "score": 0.26
    },
    {
      "slug": "1996-august-switching-from-foxpro-to-access",
      "score": 0.251
    },
    {
      "slug": "1997-september-setting-the-data-free",
      "score": 0.214
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-january-use-foxpro-to-document-a-table.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-january-use-foxpro-to-document-a-table.json"
}