Hi Rob, I did this long ago. Like Larry said, it's only the last character you need to worry about. As I remember it, I ended each record with a character that would not likely be used in the data... like a tilde ~ (In my case each record was terminated by CR LF combo).
Then I shelled to an external utility program that replaced all the tildes with spaces (char(32)). Ben On 5 Mar 2006 at 19:44, Rob Vincent wrote: > Thanks for the reply Larry, but your last comment on the subject is the > deal breaker! > > I am in fact creating a fixed position export file to be used for import > into a main-frame based accounting program. > the (CHAR(160)) will most certainly cause them a problem. > > What about using another variable TYPE that won't truncate the trailing > spaces? > I can't believe that something so rudimentary is causing such grief! > > How'd something like this get accomplished in the past... Someone had to > have needed the ability > to format text in this manner... Right?! > > > -------- Original Message -------- > > Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Right Justified Padding > > From: Lawrence Lustig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: Sun, March 05, 2006 9:24 pm > > To: [email protected] (RBASE-L Mailing List) > > > > > > > > > > << > > > > What is the correct method for creating a text variable with RJS padded > > spaces?? > > >> > > > > Whenever R:Base encounters text with trailing spaces it automatically trims > > the text. That's why you don't have annoying spaces when you load data > > from a text field, the way you do with certain server-type databases. > > > > If you want the text to appear to have blank spaces at the end, pad it with > > CHAR(160) which is a form of "hard" space that is not trimmed. For > > instance, for to pad a variable to length 30: > > > > SET VAR vMyPaddedText = (.vMyText + (SFIL(CHAR(160), 30-SLEN(.vMyText)))) > > > > Alternatively, only the very last character needs to be a 160: > > > > SET VAR vMyPaddedText = (RJS(.vMyText, 29) + CHAR(160)) > > > > Be aware that if you pass this text to other programs, those CHAR(160) > > characters won't be treated as spaces. > > -- > > Larry > > > > >
