copy structure ? Possible?

I just installed SQLEXPRESS on XP Prof. It is working fine. I want to know if there is a way to copy a table structure so I could create clones. I need about 300 tables with identical structure but different name for each one.

Also I am wondering if there is a way to ADD a table to SQL database. It is kind of a long shot but I will try to explain. I have about 200 tables in old Visual dBase format (v7.1). I would like to convert them to SQL Server tables. I found a company that offers an app that converts them to MySQL. I tried and it kind of works. I could open the output file in SQL Server but it is not a table but a kind of csv file with INSERT commands. I had to run it. So far it did not compile but in the future if those bugs (in their app) could be corrected I may end up with a single table which I may want to include in one of my databases. Is it possible?

Thanks.

Also I am wondering if there is a way to ADD a table to SQL database.

Commonly spoken, yes :-)

"...that converts them to MySQL."

Stop. From here you will be able to read the information from the MYSql Datastore using an ODBC or MySQL Provider in SQL Server.

HTH, Jens K. Suessmeyer.

http://www.sqlserver2005.de

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Jens hi,

Are you selling books or answering posters questions? If the former, I can handle it myself. I know how to find Amazon.com website. If it is the latter then your link is of very little help, more an irritation. One has to register and navigate through your commercial enterprise to get to what? Such a big nonsense!

I tend to think that I should file a complaint with MS and MSDN about all this. It is totally disgusting. It is a case of forum abuse.

|||OK... actually I don′t know what you are talking about :-) Are you refering to my website in my signature ? Hey man, thats a signature. It′s just a pointer to the home of the poster. What are you complaing about ? Normally don′t click on every link in the internet you see, right ? I presented you a solution. What do you want more ?

Lets clarify that (you might have a rainy day or something, so I don′t take it personal):
If the data is in the MySQL table and you have a solution for that you don′t need to export the data again, you can just import the data using a MySQL driver within SQL Server.

HTH, Jens K. Suessmeyer.

http://www.sqlserver2005.de (Be aware that clicking on this link might bring you to another site with malicious ads ;-) )|||

Alex,

(keep in mind I'm NOT an MSSQL expert)

Using management studio you could script the whole database for creating from scratch (and use anyhting to edit it to change code before running edited script).

Since you have dBase IV tables, and that I know that you know dBase IV well <g>, you might also simply create an "upsizer" in anything (dBase,VFP,C#...). This was the approach I have taken myself when I didn't like neither DTS nor VFP upsizing (now it has just got much better, you might try its "new" upsizing wizard).

Or you might use SSIS to do the "importing".

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Cetin, thank you again.

"Using management studio you could script the whole database for creating from scratch (and use anyhting to edit it to change code before running edited script)."

This is probably the way to go.

My second question actually pertained to a chance to ADD a free table to an SQL database. It could be a schizophrenic idea but this is what I meant:

dBase IV table --> MS SQL Server (free) table <if such a thing possible> --> ADD to an existing SQL database.

such direct conversion may not be easy (so far could not find commercial app to do it) therefore my schizophrenic idea proceeded as follows:

dBase IV table --> MySQL table -- migration to --> MS SQL Server free table <if a free table is possible in SQL Server> --> ADD to a database.

A migration tool for dBase --> MySQL exists and can be had commerially.

That was the meaning of that second paragraph,

Thank you very much.

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Jens I am sorry.

"From here you will be able to read the information from the MYSql Datastore using an ODBC or MySQL Provider in SQL Server."

Will I be able to do it in SQLEXPRESS though?

Sorry again. Perhaps it was a rainy day:)

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MSSQL doesn't have free tables. It should be in a database (existing or new - ie: freeDb:)

You can get data from dBaseIV with one of drivers (do VFPOLEDB work?-I think yes). ie:

use freeDb

SELECT *
into MSSQLTable
FROM OPENROWSET('VFPOLEDB',
'c:\myPath\';'';'',
'select * from myTable')

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Thank you very much, Cetin.

"You can get data from dBaseIV with one of drivers (do VFPOLEDB work?-I think yes). ie:"

Actually, I've tried MS dBase drivers--I could not make them work. Regardless, this painful problem for me was solved yesterday. I stumbled on a vendor: whitetown.com. They offer all sorts of converters and migration tools. I downloaded one they call DBF2DBF. It worked absolutely perfect. My dBase IV-Vsiual dBase 7 tables opened up like magic. Memo fields are there too. The demo allows only 50 records. So I will buy the app and use it. If I knew about it last year it would have saved me a lot of time. I was dumping tables into a text file with field delimiters and then reading them with VFP code into VFP tables. Now I can get a VFP table out of dBase's in no time.