MB Software Solutions General Account wrote: > Paul McNett wrote: >> MB Software Solutions General Account wrote: >>> VFP9SP1 >>> >>> We've got a scenario where a 3rd party has polluted our memo fields, and >>> I'd like to write a cleanup that takes the value of the memo field and >>> does a STRTRAN to get rid of garbage. Straight forward enough, right? >>> No, VFP is throwing an error saying "String is too long to fit." So I >>> check the VFP system capacities and sure enough, that's the magic number >>> (16777184). >>> >>> What would you advise for Plan B in this case? The memo is basically >>> polluted with bazillion quote marks. I tried this but it fails with the >>> same message: >>> >>> REPLACE comments with STRTRAN(comments,replicate(['],1000),[]) all in >>> MyTable >> A bazillion quote marks, or 1000 like your REPLACE command? > > Bazillion. I figured if I used 1000 in my STRTRAN that I could knock > off most and just leave the last <1000 in there. It would be ideal to > remove all of the extra crap, and I think I chose the 1000 instead of > something like 3 because I figured it would clean it up faster handling > larger chunks at a time.
Makes sense. Although, why not clean 'em all up in one swoop, since you are going to the trouble anyway. >> Where are the quote marks? After valid data, before valid data, or >> interspersed? > > Interspersed...something like good text, following by literally > thousands of single quotes with some more text mixed in. Rinse and > repeat. Nasty looking. Actually, this sounds like a fun project! :) >> Get the data out of the memo fields, into a temp file, and use low-level >> file operations to parse the input file into an output file, and finally >> write the sanitized contents of the output file back into your memo field. > > Looks like that's all I'll be able to do I guess. Thanks. It'll be fast, and you could deal with a byte or a chunk of bytes at a time. Luckily, you are only searching for ['] characters, however you'll undoubtedly need to be intelligent enough not to delete ['] characters that were intended. I think if I were doing this I'd write a generic function to take a Empty object (you know, the one created by SCATTER MEMVAR MEMO Name) containing the memo field, and the return would be another Empty object with the sanitized contents. Or you could have two modes: one a dry-run that only reports which records have been identified as needing sanitizing, and what would be sanitized, and another mode that actually makes the changes. Paul _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
