export fixed length file

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting Dennis Malen (Wed, 9 Nov 2005 17:09:01 -0500):

> When doing an export on a fixed length ascii file I found that when
> using two export identifiers (not sure of the terminology) that the use
> of a second export identifier caused the values to be pushed left even
> though the respective fields were defined as certain lengths.

Leading and trailing blanks from the fields are stripped unless you
use the "-x" flag.

> The following should give you an idea of what I mean:
>
>  met(1)=a&b&c&d&e&f&g&h&i&j&k&l&m&na&o&p&q&r&s&t&u&v&w&x&ya&z     ~
[...]
>  met(2)=aa&bb&cc&dd&ee&ff&gg&hh&ii&jj&kk&ll&ma&nn&oo&chr("10");write met
[...]
> Above, I had to use met(1) and met(2). This caused only z(30) and
> aa(27) to be corrupted concerning the lack of its ability to maintain
> the defined length of the respective fields.

Leading and trailing blanks were stripped from each of the two export
fields.  If "a" or "aa" have leading blanks, they will be stripped, and
if "z" has trailing blanks, they will be stripped.

> In order to fix the problem I had to do the following which was to
> create two dummy fields that held the value of each line and then
> send it out as met(1) only. I have not included the processing
> showing the dummy fields defined as that was not causing the problem.
[...]
>  xx=a&b&c&d&e&f&g&h&i&j&k&l&m&na&o&p&q&r&s&t&u&v&w&x&ya&z          ~
[...]
>  yy=aa&bb&cc&dd&ee&ff&gg&hh&ii&jj&kk&ll&ma&nn&oo&chr("10")
[...]
>  met(1)=xx&yy;write met                                            ~

Leading and trailing blanks will still be stripped.  If field "a" has
leading blanks, they will still be stripped.

> The above fixed the problem.
>
> Some of you may not be aware that this approach causes a problem and
> some of you may have a better fix.

No problem here.  If leading and trailing blanks are important, use
the "-x" flag.

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