Apollo API (Apollo Engine) > Table Creation Example with Enhanced Field Types

You may still use the traditional Date (D) and Numeric (N) fields as usual. To use the enhanced storage dates and numerics, you define them a little bit differently in your table creation routines. Specifically, the difference is in the parameters passed to the sx_CreateField function.

You normally create a table with sx_CreateNew followed by a series of calls to sx_CreateField, and finally with a call to sx_CreateExec. This general procedure remains unchanged. Here is sample source code that creates a table that includes both traditional and enhanced fields:

VB Example

sx_CreateNew( "TEST.DBF", "TEST", SDEFOX, 5 )

sx_CreateField( "LASTNAME", "C", 20, 0 ) ' Normal Char

sx_CreateField( "AGE", "N", 2, 0 ) ' Normal Numeric

sx_CreateField( "HIREDATE", "D", 8, 0 ) ' Normal Date

sx_CreateField( "SDATE", "D", 3, 0 ) ' Enhanced Date

sx_CreateField( "SALARY", "I", 4, 0 ) ' Enhanced Numeric

sx_CreateExec

C Example

sx_CreateNew( (BYTEP) "TEST.DBF", "TEST", SDEFOX, 5 )

sx_CreateField( (BYTEP) "LASTNAME", (BYTEP) "C", 20, 0 ) // Normal Char

sx_CreateField( (BYTEP) "AGE", (BYTEP) "N", 2, 0 ) // Normal Numeric

sx_CreateField( (BYTEP) "HIREDATE", (BYTEP) "D", 8, 0 ) // Normal Date

sx_CreateField( (BYTEP) "SDATE", (BYTEP) "D", 3, 0 ) // Enhanced Date

sx_CreateField( (BYTEP) "SALARY", (BYTEP) "I", 4, 0 ) // Enhanced Numeric

sx_CreateExec();

Enhanced Dates

Traditional DATE fields are always of length 8. To create an enhanced Date field, you declare the field with a length of 3. These are the only two acceptable options for the length parameter when declaring a DATE field.

Enhanced Numerics

To use the compressed integer storage mechanism of enhanced numeric fields, declare a field of type 'I' with length of 4. Type 'I' fields must always be declared with the length parameter of 4.