Differences in export function results

[Jeff Harrison]

--- On Fri, 5/15/09, Kenneth Brody <kenbrody at spamcop.net> wrote:

> From: Kenneth Brody <kenbrody at spamcop.net>
> Subject: Re: Differences in export function results
> To: gccconsulting at comcast.net
> Cc: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com, rkreiss at gccconsulting.net
> Date: Friday, May 15, 2009, 10:51 AM
> GCC Consulting wrote:
> [...]
> >> What, exactly, ends up in the export file?
> > 
> > Export without the quote gives a date-month(3 letters)
> in that column
> > location and the actual value in the next column
> position.
> > 
> > When quoted and a value present the value is properly
> imported into Excel
> > and all other values are in the correct location.
> > 
> > As I indicated below, I needed to test for a
> blank.  If blank export a  null
> > value with no quotes. 
> 
> What, exactly, ends up in the export file?
> 
> [...]
> >>> There are definite differences between the 2
> functions.
> >>>
> >>> export ascii shipdet =c:\shipdet r=\n f=, -x
> >>>
> >>> export word shipdet=c:\shipdet
> >>>
> >>> May not give the same results.
> >> Why would you expect them to give the same
> results, when they're not
> >> equivalent?
> > 
> > Didn't expect the same results.  I wanted to see
> which function would give
> > the desired results.  Export word worked fine
> once I tested for an blanks
> > and made sure I didn't export the double quotes.
> 
> Okay.  The wording made me think that you didn't
> expect any differences.
> 
> [...]
> 
> In any case, as I said, it sounds like an Excel issue that
> you're trying to 
> work around, by coaxing filePro into generating what Excel
> wants.  But, you 
> still haven't shown us what "works" and what "doesn't
> work", in terms of 
> actual data.
> 
> -- 
> Kenneth Brody
> _______________________________________________

This issue with excel relates to how the file is being opened.  If I name the file with a .csv extension, then because I have that file type associated with Excel, Excel will try to open it automatically when I double click the file from explorer.  When it does this - it automatically makes its best guess about how to format the data.  If instead I name the file with a ".txt" extension and go into excel manually, then do a file/open on this file, I get a wizard where I can format the columns to text or whatever.

I hope this helps.

Jeff Harrison
jeffaharrison at yahoo.com