The Select Indexes dialog box contains the following controls, among others:

Tables

Lists all files in the currently selected data source.

Indexes

Lists the indexes assigned to the currently selected file in the Tables list.

List Files of Type

Specifies which file types to display in the Indexes list.

The ODBC dBASE driver automatically opens and updates dBASE IV index files. You must use the Select Indexes dialog box to associate dBASE III .ndx files with dBASE files.

The following limitations apply when creating dBASE indexes:

  • All column names must be valid.
  • All columns must be in the same ascending or descending order.
  • The length of any single text column must be less than 100 bytes.
  • If multiple columns exist, all columns must be text columns and the sum of the column sizes must be less than 100 bytes.
  • Memo fields cannot be indexed.
  • An index must not already be specified for the current set of fields. (That is, duplicate indexes are not allowed.)
  • The index name must follow the dBASE naming convention. dBASE III requires each index to be in a separate file and have an .ndx extension. In dBASE IV, indexes are created as tag names that are stored in a single .mdx file that has the same base name as the database file. (For example, Emp.mdx is the index file for the Emp.dbf database.)

To associate an index with a table:

  1. From the Tables list, select a file.
  2. From the Indexes list, select an index.
  3. Click OK to save the table/index associations.
Note:
For the driver to recognize them, dBASE III indexes must be assigned by using this dialog box.