### Aliases

For a variety of reasons, database names and locations get changed. If you create a report, then change the name or location of a table or file, the Report Designer must be able to find the new name or location. This is especially important when you create formulas in your report that access a table that has been renamed or moved. To fix the reference for a single field would not be difficult, but to find every formula that uses that field could be a difficult and time consuming task.

To solve this problem, the Report Designer uses aliases to refer to database tables and files. Aliases are pointers, internal devices that tell the program where it should look for a database field. Now, if you change the name or location of the database, you simply reset the pointer. See Locating files. The name of the alias does not change, so your formulas are not affected. The report designer looks to the alias for the location and name, goes to the new location for the database field, and executes the formula without a problem.

The Report Designer automatically assigns default alias names to database tables when you first select the table or file. By default, an alias matches the original name of the table. In databases where the database table is a separate file (for instance, dBASE), the name of the database file is used without the file name extension. For example, if you are using the dBASE database file Company.dbf, the program will assign a default alias name of Company to the file. You can accept the default alias or assign a new one to the database table.

You can change an alias at any time using the Set Alias command on the Database menu. However, if you have already created formulas in your report using the original alias name, you will need to edit the formulas to use the new alias.

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