Visual FoxPro is a tool for developing applications for cataloging, tracking, and processing information. Although you can perform many database tasks through the Visual FoxPro interface, accessing the power of Visual FoxPro requires some knowledge of the Visual FoxPro programming language.

Like other programming languages, Visual FoxPro makes it possible for you to work with various types of data, such as numbers and character strings. You can store data of these various types in tables, arrays, variables, and other data containers. To manipulate the data, you can perform operations, such as addition and concatenation. In addition to the operators, Visual FoxPro provides a rich set of commands and functions, so you can protect, display, and manage your data.

In This Section

Data and Field Types

All Visual FoxPro data has a type — a description of the permissible values and range and size of those values.

Data Storage Containers

You choose a data storage container according to the amount and type of data and how you want to use it.

Operators

Operators make it possible for you to manipulate data of the same type.

Expression Building

Visual FoxPro expressions combine data and operators to create a value of a given data type.

Data Manipulation

The expressions you can build give you full access to the power of manipulating data in Visual FoxPro.