Printing to a file

[John Esak]

No problem. It's great when a plan goes well. :-)

John

P.S. The next thing to do is get some headings for the Excel export... I
would do it like this.

Change your table to look like this... later we can add a blank line between
the heading and the data lines. For now, just a heading. Put whatever you
like.  Let me know if this works okay, too. ("TOP" and "heading" are
labels...)

TOP      if:
       then: export WORD col=C:\myexport.csv
         if: fl eq ""
       then: fl(1,*,g)="1";  gosub heading;  goto TOP
         if:
       then: col(1)=14;  col(2)=15;  col(3)=9
         if:
       then: col(4)=11;  col(5)=295;  col(6)=3
         if:
       then: end
heading  if:
       then: col(1)="Title_of_column_1";  col(2)="Title_of_column_2" ...
         if:
       then: col(4)="Title_of_column_4";  col(5)="Title_of_column_5' ...
         if:
       then: return


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Fry [mailto:jimfry at cnx.net]
> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 9:59 AM
> To: john at valar.com
> Subject: Re: Printing to a file
>
>
> Most kid of you, John!
>
> I printed out your response & followed your instructions meticulously...
> with outstanding results... this is precisely what I was looking for...
>
> ...thank you for holding my hand....
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Esak" <john at valar.com>
> To: "Jim Fry" <jimfry at cnx.net>
> Cc: "Fplist (E-mail)" <filepro-list at seaslug.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 8:45 PM
> Subject: RE: Printing to a file
>
>
> > <top posted>
> >
> > Okay, let's start from the very beginning. (doe, a deer... a female
> deer...
> > :-) [don't mind me, it just sounded like that old song.. :-)
> >
> > I think the first thing you should try is a simple export and
> see how that
> > works. You are going to design a filePro "processing-only" output format
> to
> > do this. It's only one line of code... so take heart.
> >
> > I had told you how to run something from a command line. Normally, you
> would
> > design a filePro user menu and put the command I gave you on an action
> line
> > of the menu so you could perform the task over and over again. But, for
> the
> > moment, let's bypass that and just design and run this export from the
> > filePro Main Menu.
> >
> > Let me describe how to export some data out of your filePro file into a
> .csv
> > file.  This is a "comma,separated,values" file... which is a file format
> > that Excel can read directly and display. It is just what it
> sounds like,
> > each of your fields from any record separated by commas. (The field data
> > will have quotes around it... but these are ignored when the
> file is used
> by
> > any program. (Well there not ignored, they are used but the process is
> > invisible to the user.)
> >
> > Each record's fields will be on a line by itself. You can
> designate which
> > fields to export. If the field is blank, this will be shown in the .csv
> file
> > as "".  A .csv file might look something like this. (2 records worth...)
> >
> >
> > "Bill Jones","2 Hathaway Street","1295.00","495.23","","Group1"
> > "Joe Smith","32 Wilmer Drive","8495.00","222.24","ABC","Group2"
> >
> > These might represent the numbered filePro fields from your file as
> follows:
> >
> > 14,15,9,11,295,3
> >
> > Now, apparently we have selected only two records to dump into this .csv
> > file. You may sort and select whatever records you want to put into the
> .csv
> > in the same way you would sort/select records for any filePro
> output. Here
> > is the code and method you need to build and run the export above.
> >
> > Go into Define Output and build a new "Processing Only" output called
> > "exp_test". You can follow the prompts to do this... I will
> assume you can
> > do this okay. If not, write back... Basically, just accept all the
> defaults
> > and don't change anything on the sort or printing pages at this point.
> > Essentially, once you've built the processing-only output
> format, you will
> > be left on a blank output screen because there is no "printed"
> output from
> > this type of format... it is "processing-only" :-). Anyway, once the
> format
> > is completely defined, you will have to press
> > (U)pdate and then F8 to see your options, and one of them will be "P
> Define
> > Processing For Format". This will bring you to where you have
> to write the
> > one line of code (and some assignments of which fields you want to
> export.)
> > Here is what you need to write on this If/Then screen.
> >
> >      if:
> >    then: export WORD col=C:\myexport.csv
> >      if:
> >    then: col(1)=14;  col(2)=15;  col(3)=9
> >      if:
> >    then: col(4)=11;  col(5)=295;  col(6)=3
> >
> > The single line of code for the export is the first line... It just says
> > that I want to put the data into a file called C:\myexport.csv. It also
> says
> > that I'm going to refer to the fields (i.e., the columns) in
> this file as
> > "col". Then, the next lines just assign the filePro field I want to
> > whichever column in the .csv file I want them in. In other words, even
> > though it is self-explanatory by looking at it... I'm putting
> the value of
> > my filePro field 14 into column 1 of the .csv file, putting the value of
> my
> > filePro field 15 into column 2, putting the value of my filePro field 9
> into
> > column 3 ... and so forth.
> >
> > Save this processing table out and run this output format in
> the same way
> > you would run any filePro output against any records in your file...
> perhaps
> > against ALL records, whatever you like. You will be left with a file
> called
> > C:\myexport.csv that contains all the data from the records you selected
> for
> > the output run. I'm assuming you would just go to Request Output and
> choose
> > the filePro file, the output format (exp_test), and the
> sort/selection as
> > you must do for other reports and forms.
> >
> > This file C:\myexport.csv will have a little "X" on its icon as
> if it were
> > actually an Excel file. This is because Excel can read this
> simple format.
> > Just double click the icon for the file and it will open in Excel. (This
> is
> > just a text file and could also be dropped on Wordpad or Notepad....)
> >
> > The special formatting of Description lines and special column
> formatting
> > can come later. It is pretty easy, too, though. For example if
> you wanted
> a
> > blank column in between two columns of data, you could just put
> something
> > like this on your processing table.
> >
> >       if:
> >     then: col(9)=72;  col(10)=73;  col(11)="";  col(12)=109
> >
> > and the 11th column would always be blank.
> >
> > By the way, all that this processing table does as it stops on
> each record
> > you've selected for the output run is assign the fields to the columns
> > you've prescribed. On the very first record it encounters, it opens the
> > export .csv file and on every subsequent record the .csv file
> remains open
> > and each record is simply appended to it.
> >
> > By your comments it was hard to tell exactly how much you know about
> > filePro. Since you've used it for many years, even if you haven't ever
> > written any processing, I'm sure this will be a breeze for you... I
> > didn't/don't want to talk "down" to you... so if I've been too basic, or
> not
> > basic enough... let me know.
> >
> > Good luck,
> >
> > John Esak
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com
> > [mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com]On Behalf Of Jim Fry
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 1:21 PM
> > To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> > Subject: Printing to a file
> >
> >
> > Thank you for the offerings that I have received todate...some
> of you guys
> > really know your way around filepro....
> >
> > Me, on the otherhand, I know where the gas goes & not much more...
> although
> > I've been working with filepro for more than a dozen years, I
> haven't done
> > that much programing work myself... I can dance to a certain degree but
> what
> > has been suggested is over my head... I thought that perhaps I
> should just
> > pull in my horns & keep going...but then again, maybe just one last
> question
> > just in case someone can tolerate a subject at this lowly level...
> >
> > Here is one reply from John that I don't understand:
> >
> > Well, it currently isn't possible with the rtf printcode table. It likes
> > courrier and a couple others (perhaps). I guess it would use and respect
> the
> > Letter Gothic font... but that is also mono-spaced.
> >
> > If the end result is to get this output into Excel, could you
> just export
> > the data from filePro directly into an Excel table... and let
> Excel handle
> > the different font style you want?  Rick, my colleague here, uses SYLK
> files
> > to get stuff nicely into Excel.  I used to use these export
> files all the
> > time in Multiplan years ago... my bet is JPR still does this.
> :-)  In any
> > case, the syntax is:
> >
> > then: export MULTI myexcelfilename=c:\wherever-you-want-the-file
> > then: myexcelfilename(1)=13;  myexcelfilename(2)=31;
> myexcelfilename(3)=14
> > ...
> > then: end
> >
> > On your first record, these fields would go into the Excel
> columns of row
> > one.
> >
> > On your second record the same fields would go into row 2...
> and so forth.
> >
> > The command to run this would be:
> >
> >    dreport filename -fp outputname -s selset ...
> >
> > where the outputname is a processing only table that has the lines above
> on
> > it.
> >
> > Glad I asked Rick about this first... good luck.
> >
> > John
> >
> > P.S. The syntax to start at a paricular row or column is:
> >
> >    export name=path r=n
> >
> > and/or
> >
> >    export name=path c=n
> >
> > My questions:
> > How do I "export the data from filePro directly into an Excel table"?
> Where
> > do I type the syntax?
> >
> > I have attached a portion of the report I sent to a file just so you can
> see
> > what I'm trying to work with.
> >
> > Once again.,,,, thank you.
> >
> > - Jim
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Jim Fry
> > To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 3:57 PM
> > Subject: Printing to a file
> >
> >
> > Hello:
> >
> > What I am trying to do is print an output to file.... & then be able to
> open
> > the file & copy and paste it into a newsletter...
> >
> > We want to do a template in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher....&
> then
> > be able to get the information from my output & paste it in easily.
> >
> > When I did the print to file idea, I was able to find my output on my C
> > drive under Hardcopy.txt just fine but there are columns of numbers
> > involved... when I copy & pasted, the columns were all out of
> alignment &
> it
> > was more work than it should have been to do what I was trying to
> > accomplish.
> >
> > I was told that there was something called 'enriched text format' that
> would
> > make my tast much easier...
> >
> > Please help..
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Jim Fry
>