Knowledge Base

PRB: "Unrecognized Phrase/Keyword..." with Macro Substitution

Article ID: 110128

Article Last Modified on 10/15/2003

Microsoft FoxPro 2.5b for Macintosh
Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0b for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q110128

SYMPTOMS

When you use macro substitution with a filename that contains spaces, the error message "Unrecognized phrase/keyword in command" occurs.

CAUSE

The Macintosh file system allows filenames to have spaces. This feature can cause errors in programs that use macro substitution and don't allow for spaces.

Macro substitution in FoxPro is direct text substitution. Consider the following code:

   x='MAC HD:FOXPRO:DATABASE'
   USE &x

This code is exactly equivalent to the following USE command:

   USE MAC HD:FOXPRO:DATABASE

However, this USE command isn't valid because FoxPro thinks the filename is MAC and doesn't understand what HD:FOXPRO:DATABASE is supposed to be.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, do one of the following:

Pad the composed text string with another set of quotation marks:
```
      x="'MAC HD:FOXPRO:DATABASE'"
						
```
Note the double quotation marks and single quotation marks. You can also use "" or ''. -or-

Use a named expression:

      x='MAC HD:FOXPRO:DATABASE'
      USE (x)

Additional query words: VFoxMac FoxMac file name marco errmsg err msg

Keywords: kberrmsg KB110128