↑
Main Page

moveFirst

The first step in the previous code is to set the recordset to the first record. The

while

loop then tests

EOF, which is

true

when the end of the file has been reached. Inside of the loop is where the data pro-

cessing occurs before moving on to the next record.

It’s also possible to move backwards through the recordset using the opposite methods:

oDataset.moveLast();

while (!oDataset.BOF) {

//do something with the data here

oDataset.movePrevious();

}

This code starts from the last record and works its way back to the first. The

BOF

property is equal to

true

when you reach the beginning of the file.

To get at the data, use the

fields()

method of the recordset with the column name (either

first_name

last_name

in the previous example) or the position of the column, starting at 0, in the table. This

method returns an object representing the field that has a

value

property with the actual value. So to

display the first name for each person in

Names.txt

, the following code can be used:

oDataset.moveFirst();

while (!oDataset.EOF) {

alert(oDataset.fields(0).value);

oDataset.moveNext();

}

You could also use

first_name

instead of

oDataset.moveFirst();

while (!oDataset.EOF) {

alert(oDataset.fields(“first_name”).value);

oDataset.moveNext();

}

In this way, you can move through the recordset and get all the data you need.

The tabular data control is a useful component if you have the luxury of developing only for Internet

Explorer on Windows. It has a great many uses for it, many more than can be discussed in this context.

Its tie to both Internet Explorer as a browser and Windows as a platform has, however, greatly inhibited

its use and adoption in Web development. Presently, such solutions are best suited for Intranet applica-

tions where the user base can be kept to those using IE on Windows exclusively.

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