Interesting thread.

<plug>
The "unprintable" characters issue was actually
why I wrote the Clean command in STExport and the $clean function
in Suprtool. Some imports were skewing of for apparently undetectable
reasons. I don't mean this as a plug, just a comment on development
as exporting and importing became more prevalent in our customer base,
but I will put the plug reference around this paragraph.
</plug>

Of course some importers pay attention to "escaping" out the delimiter
character if it appears to be part of the data, so another solution would be
to escape out the delimeter character if found to be part of the data
but fundamentally Rich is correct in knowing your data is key.

Neil

> Hi All :)
>     Rich brings up a great "Gotcha" avoider!!!
>
>     Check your data before you do this type of thing... I used to get bit
> by phone number fields alot... thinking that they were numeric only (SRN
> Databases) but since the fields were 'X' Type (IIRC) they sometimes had
> "unprintable" characters in them (especially from one of my clerks that
> liked wearing lots of bracelets that hit keys :( )   Took me weeks to track
> down how and what was happening ... but that is another ramblin' :)
>
> Thanks,
> Art
> =======================================================
> Art Bahrs, CISSP           Information Security          The Regence Group
> (503) 225-4992               Cell 971-244-2459               FAX (503)
> 220-3806
>
>
>                                                                            
> Rich Trapp:                                        
>
>
>
>
>    Whatever delimiter you choose, you MUST examine your data to ensure
> it doesn't contain this value.  I've found using the POSIX "tr" command
> very helpful.  I've also created an Excel macro to replace various non
> printable characters with spaces and then using the TAB character as the
> delimiter.  (Of couse, I can't put my finger on it at the
> moment....DOH!)
>
> RAT
>
> Rich Trapp | Solutions Architect | Managed Business Solutions (MBS)
> (970) 494-4980 | Fax: (970) 416-1543 | Toll free: 800-421-1016 | 1201
> Oakridge Dr. Suite 301 | Fort Collins, CO 80525-5562 |
> [log in to unmask]  | www.mbshome.com
>
>
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