File Formats

The file formats that are supported for external sets are:

•FIXED (length)

Here is an example of a record in FIXED format:

1001 P.M. JOHNSON 7 MAY 1968 new employee, no experience

•FIXEDVLE (fixed length with variable-length last element)

In FIXEDVLE format, the last element does not contain spaces at the end.

•VARIABLE (length)

Here is an example of a record in VARIABLE format:

1001,'P.M.','JOHNSON','7 MAY 1968','new employee, no experience'

•CSV (Comma-Separated Values)

Here is an example of a record in CSV format:

1001,P.M.,JOHNSON,7 MAY 1968,"new employee, no experience"

Apart from these file format settings, there are a number of variables that can affect the exact look of data in an export file:

•For each external set element, the data type determines a number of output aspects. For example, if a field in a VARIABLE file format corresponds to an external set element with the NUMBER data type, then the value will not be surrounded by quotes. There is a wide choice of data types, and not all of them are supported by all platforms. For more information, see the lists of supported data types for the various RDBMS platforms in the USoft Definer Help (look for the index entries for "data types").

•Depending on the data type and file format, the data length setting may have an effect on the spacing between fields in the file. Generated data length is derived from domain specifications, but can be changed manually for each external set element.

•Formats such as date formats are derived from IO Format specifications (at domain level), but these can also be changed manually for each external set element.