Greetings:
I need to create an ASCII fixed field formatted file (say that 3 times real
fast). I am using the LJS function but am having an issue with fields that
are null. This may have been discussed before but is there a way to embed
space characters into a field when it is NULL?
For instance: (LJS(IFNULL,<field>,' ',<field>),5))
which is to say that if the field is null embed five spaces otherwise use
the contents of the field.
I ended up doing a workaround that embedded XXXXX if the field was null and
then I used R:Code to replace the XXXXX with 5 spaces in the output file.
Not exactly elegant but it worked. I've tried using the CHAR function, too,
but that didn't work unless I'm missing something.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Incidentally, I tried the same technique in 7.0 and got the same results.
Thanks
Mike Ramsour
Voice: 740-829-4340
Test:
SET VAR vspace TEXT = (SFIL(' ',10)) -- trying to create a text variable
that has a length of 10 characters that are all spaces. Also tried using
CHAR(32)
--
SET VAR vlen INTEGER = (SLEN(.vspace) -- to test the length of vspace
variable
--
SHOW VAR vlen gives a result of 0
--
SET VAR vspace TEXT = (SFIL(' ',10) + '9') -- trying to create a text
variable that starts with 10 spaces and ends with a 9
--
SET VAR vlen INTEGER = (SLEN(.vspace) -- to test the length of vspace
variable
--
SHOW VAR vlen gives a result of 11, i.e. 10 spaces plus 1 character
--
