What about having the program that prints the report also produce a side file containing XML? Howard's COBOL report reader would process the XML file instead of the "printed report". (COBOL can process XML, after all.) On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:36:46 -0700, Ulrich Krueger wrote:
>Howard, >Instead of trying to read in a "printed report" on file and parsing my way >through all the extraneous stuff like page heading lines, total lines, blank >lines etc. to get to the meat of the information, I would ask for the input >file that created the report in the first place. Processing a data file is, >IMHO, a lot less error prone than parsing my way through a printed report. >OK, it can be done and I have done it, too, if I had no other choice. But I >prefer not to do so. And you can bet money on the fact that a few months or >years later, the report format changes because someone modified the report >program and then your program goes down in flames ... that's probably going >to cause a 3am phone call from a panicked operator ... I like to avoid that >kind of disturbances. > >Alternatively, if you cannot process the input file, for whatever the >reason, try and see if you can get a data file containing the needed >information. Change (or have someone change) the report program to also >output a data file with the information that you are looking for and then >process that data file instead of the "printed report" file. > >Regards, >Ulrich Krueger > >-----Original Message----- >From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Howard Brazee >Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 09:46 >Subject: How would you read a report? > >What would be the cleanest way to have a CoBOL program read a report file > >// DCB=(RECFM=FB,LRECL=133,DSORG=PS) > >Would you copy it first, changing its format? -- Tom Schmidt Madison, WI ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
