imports

[Mike Schwartz-PC Support & Services]

> I need to import a file using 'Auth #' as the record and
> field delimiters.   Is this possible.
 
> Using filepro 5.0 and Sco unix latest version
 
> thanks  Robert Pulliam

	You can't have the same character or string of characters for both
the record AND the field delimiter.  Else how would we tell that it was the
end of a field, instead of the end of a record?

	I suspect that there is a carriage return/linefeed or some other
more standard record delimiter at the end of each record.

	If you wouldn't expect any other #'s (pound signs) to occur in the
data, you could setup your import using the # as the field delimiter.  Then
just strip the "auth " off of the end of each incoming field.

	You could read in the file before you try to import it, just to make
sure there aren't any #'s in the file that do not have "auth " in front of
them.

	There are several other ways to parse the data that I can think of,
if that won't work for you.

	I would suggest that you view the incoming data file using a hex
editor, so that you can see all the characters (especially the characters
that don't have a visual representation on your screen (like a linefeed).
For example, you can download a trial version of UltraEdit32 from any of the
download sites.  It has a "hex" function.

	Else send me a copy of the file, and I can look at it for you and
make other recommendations.  Or, better yet, if you can split off just 2 or
3 lines of the data file, you can try posting it to the list.  However, the
method you use to split the file might introduce some errors into the file. 

Mike Schwartz
PC Support & Services