how to create a database ?

gjoisa

gjoisa

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Hi I am writing an astrology program for which i need a database containing latitude longitude informations . Required fields are :
1. Name of the Place eg:Mumbai
2. Latitude (Degrees , minutes , North or South)eg:18:58 N
3. Longitude (degrees , Minutes , West or East)eg:72:50 E
4. Timezone (Hours and minutes)eg:+5:30
How to create it ?
 
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BjornF

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Hi Gjoisa,

the easiest way to do it is to use a comma delimited file (for small databases).

Put a table-control on the form you will be using and then create the table by adding columns to it e.g.:
table1.AddCol (cString, "PlaceName", 0) and so on for each column you want to add (the syntax is under "addcol", under "table" in the helpfile)

Once you have created the columns in the table you can fill it with data (see "cell" under "table" in the helpfile)

Finally you save it with e.g.
table1.SaveCSV, e.g. Table1.SaveCSV ("Astrology.csv", ",", True)
once again the syntax is in the helpfile. The resulting file can be read by any text editor e.g. notepad.

I assure you, it is very straightforward - to my mind that is what makes it so nice to work with Basic4ppc :)

Good luck ! / Björn

Edit: As always Erel succeeds in answering first - but this time your comment is shorter than mine ! :)
 
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Stellaferox

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Just a question that pops into mind: is there a way to create a CSV-database, using the FileWrite method? I know I can write a comma after each entry but in the textmode each entry takes up a line. I want to see the data after one another in textmode (as if opened by a texteditor). Is that possible?
 
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BjornF

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Hi Stellarefox,

I think so, these lines write 10 lines in three columns, separated by a comma. Is that what you were asking for?

FileOpen(c1,AppPath&"\test.csv",cWrite)
For i=0 To 10
FileWrite(c1,"This is record "&i&" col 1, This is record "&i&" col 2, This is record "&i&" col 3")
Next
FileClose(c1)

all the best / Björn
 
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BjornF

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Dear Gjoisa,

there is actually quite a good example in the helpfile, but here is a something I have used myself:

con.New1
cmd.New1("",con.Value)
con.Open("Data Source = " & DataF)

TableFields="Cat text, Title text, Note text, Deadline text"
Txt="create table if not exists MainTable (" & TableFields & ")"
cmd.CommandText=Txt
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery
cmd.CommandText="create table if not exists CatTable (Dummy text, Vis integer, Cat text)"
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery

It tries to open DataF. If the file does not exist or the database doesn't exist then it creates a database with two tables (MainTable and CatTable), the first with four fields and the second with three fields (the "text" is put in there to give the type of field). The database is opened with filename DataF.

But may I suggest that you have a look at the helpfile - it is really quite helpful ;)

all the best / Björn
 
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Stellaferox

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Hi Bjorn,

That is the problem, the FileWrite only takes one parameter at the time and moves on to the next line with a CRLF.
Marc
 
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BjornF

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Hi Marc,

but if you write it all together (e.g. "this is col1, this is col2, this is col3") then you will end up with three columns if you open this as a database.

If this isn't what you were asking about then I'm afraid I didn't understand the question, could you explain further?

all the best / Björn
 
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Stellaferox

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Yes you're right there, but I want to read the file using the SplitString feature on the comma's and it won't look "into" the string if there are any comma's. I want to separate the entries with comma's in one long line actually, just as CSV files.
marc
 
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BjornF

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Hmm, that is more difficult. I think that is beyond the level of my competence, sorry :(

Björn
 
agraham

agraham

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Stellaferox said:
Just a question that pops into mind: is there a way to create a CSV-database, using the FileWrite method?
Click to expand...
Yes, but as the answer is simple I may not have understood your problem :)

text = "values1" & "," & "value2" & "," & .....
FileWrite(c1, text)
 
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Stellaferox

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Agraham,

That might work well, but I need roughly 133 million entries (with equivalent comma's) in a single textstring then. Will that work?
 
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Stellaferox

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Well, I dont NEED to write it as a single line. I need to write 133784560 entries in a CSV, comma separated file. Then I want to read it in an array using the splStringfeature using the commaseparator.
Later on when having checked the data I will use a binary file (I need to sort the data first).
Marc
 
agraham

agraham

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Why do you need to write it to a CSV file and then reread it all back in again? I assume you are generating the data within the program. Unless it takes a lot of processing to generate each data point it might well be quicker to just generate the data straight into the array rather than doing a whole lot of string processing on it.

Also that is a huge amout of data that will occupy a huge amount of memory. If it were Int32s it is nearly half a Gigabyte, as Strings it could be even more! Unless your PC has a lot of memory your app will cause Windows to page stuff to and from disk and slow down processing to a crawl. Are you sure that you have structured your app and its' data in the optimum way.
 
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Stellaferox

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Agraham,

You are right. I am generating the code from inside and then building a "mothertable". I have to eyeball the data, hence the CSV format.
Later I want to read in the data in an array and after some work, split up the mothertable in a few smaller ones with indexes. Then I can use BinaryFile options. That is the main idea.
I need to optimize my code (lot easier in the earlier days with assembly languages, but Basic4PPC doesn support this (yet)).
Because computing from code takes a lot longer then reading a table (using binary search) I am able to have any entry I want in a 133 million base within 27 steps maximum.
Marc
 
agraham

agraham

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Stellaferox said:
I have to eyeball the data, hence the CSV format.
Click to expand...
You can't possibly eyeball all 133Mitems. Why not just generate the data into an array then put some testing code in to write out selected chunks of it to MsgBoxes or to small text files, they don't have to be CSV files to be readable.
Because computing from code takes a lot longer then reading a table (using binary search) I am able to have any entry I want in a 133 million base within 27 steps maximum
Click to expand...
Sorry - you missed my point. I meant generate all the items into the array rather than read all those items from a file and then do your lookups and build your smaller tables. Although for 27 steps involving 27 equality checks to save any time it must be a relatively long algorithm to generate the data? Also that implies sorting the table. Unless you can generate the data in sorted form that could take a long time as well. Have you done any timings to estimate how long this mammoth thing will take to run?
lot easier in the earlier days with assembly languages, but Basic4PPC doesn support this (yet)
Click to expand...
It probably never will as B4PPC outputs C# code which is compiled to IL (intermediate language) and written to the exe which the .NET Framework CLR (Common Language Runtime) JITs (Just In Time compiles) it at runtime to "safe" machine code. All this is done to stop humans fiddling with Assembly code and making mistakes. There are ways to cross over into "unsafe" code in DLLs but for B4PPC that would need a library and I'll go out on a limb and bet that Erel will never support this natively in B4PPC. If you are enough of an anorak (like me) you can buy books to find out how IL and the CLR works.
 
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