Old *.dat file - what is it?

[munger]

I have an old application that uses a .dat file for the data. If I want to convert it to something from the 21st century, how do I do so? I haven't succeeded in viewing the file properly with the few file viewers at hand.

 

[ghubbell]

Try re-"suffixing" it .Mdb Gord
ghubbell@total.net

 

[MichaelRed]

I believe some older programs used ".dat" as the designiation for data files intended to be the old fixed record length files used for "random" access. If this is so, you could open the file(s) from NotePad or WordPad. The text fields would all be clearly readable, while the numerics might be stored in the the MK? CV? format (I - interger; S = Single; L = Long ...) which appear as 'gibberish' (high ASCII characters). These files also ALWAYS aoppear to have a repeating pattern - the pattern length is the "fixed" length of the record. Some programs avoided the numeric conversion and just allocated sufficient space for the 'expected' number values to be stored as numeric outputs.

The only real effort is to decode the record lenght and the field names/meanings. You just set up a UDT to match the record characteristics, read in the records and re-write thme to somewhere a bit more useful (ak.ka a database).


MichaelRed
redmsp@erols.com

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over

 

[RachelK]

I would like to design a query that only shows the first 3 letters of a colum

Ie if the data in the coulm is abcdefg I would like to see just abc just the first 3 letters of each row.

Any Idea's I'd be greatfull.

 

[MichaelRed]

Hmmmmmmm,

my knee jerk is to note this is way out of the 'beaten path' of this thred. your request should be placed in a new thread with a proper subject. 'm sure someone would happily supply you with a proper left x, 3 expr.



MichaelRed
m.red@att.net

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over