Knowledge Base

BUG: "Invalid Coordinates" Error Message Received when Sending @ SAYs to Text File

Article ID: 164739

Article Last Modified on 2/10/2005

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q164739

SYMPTOMS

The "Invalid coordinates" error message is received when sending @..SAYs to a text file when the coordinates for the @..SAY reach a certain number. The certain number is dependent on the FontSize property of _SCREEN. The smaller the _SCREEN.FontSize, the larger the coordinate values can be.

RESOLUTION

The following code can be used as a workaround to this problem, depending on the circumstances: 
SET ALTERNATE TO test.txt
SET ALTERNATE ON
SET CONSOLE OFF

FOR i=1 TO 35000
? "Row "+STR(i)
ENDFOR

SET ALTERNATE OFF
SET ALTERNATE TO
SET CONSOLE ON
The code above uses the ? command instead of @...SAY's to output. The ? command is placed inside a FOR...ENDFOR loop for illustration purposes. In an actual application, the FOR...ENDFOR loop would likely be replaced with what actually needs to be output to the text file.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The "Invalid coordinates" error message is error number 1959. The Help file states that the coordinate values must be between -32768 and 32767. Visual FoxPro 3.x for Windows and Macintosh, and FoxPro for Windows can use coordinates within the range specified by the Help file without error.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Enter the following commands in the Visual FoxPro Command window: 
          SET DEVICE TO PRINTER
      SET PRINTER TO test.txt
      @ 32700,1 SAY "Hello"     && This line will cause the error
      SET PRINTER TO
      SET DEVICE TO SCREEN
    Although these few lines of code are all that is needed to reproduce the error, it may be useful to find out what the maximum coordinate can be in a particular situation. Continue with the next few steps to determine the maximum coordinate that can be used.
  2. Place the following code in a new program file and save it:
       IF FILE("test.txt")
        DELETE FILE "test.txt"
   ENDIF

   _SCREEN.FONTNAME="Arial"
   _SCREEN.FONTSIZE=10

   SET DEVICE TO PRINTER
   SET PRINTER TO test.txt
   FOR i=1 TO 32770
   @ i, 1 SAY "Hello "+ STR(i)
   ENDFOR

   SET PRINTER TO
   SET DEVICE TO SCREEN
   MODIFY FILE test.txt
  3. Run the program. Because you should get the "Invalid coordinates" error, cancel the program when the error dialog box comes up.
  4. Finish out the program by entering the following commands in the Visual FoxPro Command window:
    SET PRINTER TO SET DEVICE TO SCREEN MODIFY FILE test.txt
  5. If the text file is not at the bottom, scroll down until the end is reached. The maximum coordinate should be listed. With _SCREEN.FontSize set to 10, the maximum coordinate should be about 2,047. If the _SCREEN.FontSize is set to 4, the maximum coordinate should be about 5,461. _SCREEN.FontSize won't accept sizes less than 4 point. The program code in step 2 above has a command for changing the FontSize property of _SCREEN.

Keywords: kbbug KB164739


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