removing commas from text files automatically

[dougerstew]

I have been manually finding/replacing commas from textfiles before I import into foxpro 2.6, as it cuts off imported numbers if I don't remove commas. I would think there should be a way for a program to automatically remove them without having to stop the program to do it manually. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks!

 

[DSummZZZ]

Are you not importing using the DELIMITED parameter?


-Dave S.-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[dougerstew]

Dave,

I should have clarified. I am importing as in the system data format (SDF) and I only want numbers to have their commas eliminated before importing.

Thanks,

Doug

 

[DSummZZZ]

If all you want to do is replace ALL commas, this will get you started:

STORE 0 TO nInHandle, nOutHandle
STORE '' TO cTmpStr
STORE 'InFile.TXT' TO cInFile

nInHandle = FOPEN(cInFile)
nOutHandle = FCREATE('OutFile.TXT')

IF nInHandle < 0 .OR. nOutHandle < 0
   ?'Error'
   RETURN
ENDIF

DO WHILE !FEOF(nInHandle)
   cTmpStr = FGETS(nInHandle)
   cTmpStr = ChrTran(cTmpStr , ',', '')
   =FPUTS(nOutHandle, cTmpStr )
ENDDO
=FCLOSE(nInHandle)
=FCLOSE(nOutHandle)
ERASE (cInFile)
RENAME outfile.txt TO (cInFile)

If you need to replace commas at a certain position, you will have to do some parsing and replace a portion of it.
You can use LEFT(), SUBSTR(), RIGHT(), etc., for that sort of stuff.
Let us know if you need more help.


-Dave S.-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[dougerstew]

Thanks, Dave. I'll give it a try and let you know if I have any problems.

Doug

 

[rgbean]

Dave,
I think it's a bit more complicated than this. With fixed width columns, you'd need to not only kill the commas, but put back leading spaces in the data "column" for any removed. i.e.

ABCDEF 1,234,567GHIJ ... (before)
ABCDEF 1234567GHIJ ... (your code's after)

ABCDEF 1,234,567GHIJ ... (before)
ABCDEF   1234567GHIJ ... (expected after?)

Rick

 

[DSummZZZ]

You're absolutely right. That's why I said in my post ...this will get you started.
One would probably want to grab a chunk of the string, check the length, remove commas, pad it with spaces, reattach, ....
Repeat as needed.


-Dave S.-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[rgbean]

Dave,
Even I missed the ".. this will get your started." part. (Maybe this "short" week has me off balance a bit. ) I guess I just thought it was important to point out that this was not a "canned" solution like we sometimes post here.

Rick