export fixed length file

[Jeff Harrison]

--- Dennis Malen <dmalen at malen.com> wrote:

> 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.
>
I'm not sure of the terminology either.  I would
think, though in the context that you are using I
would use "export field" .

> The following should give you an idea of what I
> mean:
> 
>  6 ne ""                                            
>              ~
> 
>
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
>     ~
>    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
>   -   -   -
>  6 ne ""
> 
>
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.

[snip]

A couple of things here.  

#1 You have not shown us the actual export line that
you are using.

#2 Have you explicitly defined every one of your dummy
fields to be of a given length?

#3 You probably should not be doing the export this
way.  It sounds like you should be doing an export
ascii with the -X flag, and using a \n as the record
separator.  That way you would use met(1), met(2),
met(3), etc. for each field you want to export.

Jeff Harrison
jeffaharrison at yahoo.com

Author of JHExport and JHImport.  The easiest and
fastest ways to generate code for filePro exports and
imports.



	
		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 
http://mail.yahoo.com