I had a similar request, and I used the write action with a series of <@PAD> tags. As Stefan points out in a separate post to this thread, there is a gotcha with the number of characters. It took me a little bit to figure it out as well.
I also wrote a little app to read the exported file and check the position of certain strings. It was a lot easier than opening the export file in a text editor and trying to count by hand. I had a form so that I could enter the string I was checking for, and a page that used the <@LOCATE> tag to find the position. Hope this helps, Steve Smith Oakbridge Information Solutions Office: (519) 624-4388 GTA: (416) 606-3885 Fax: (519) 624-3353 Cell: (416) 606-3885 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.oakbridge.ca > -----Original Message----- > From: Scott Cadillac [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: March 6, 2003 11:25 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Witango-Talk: Help with Strings > > > Hi Gene, > > I shouldn't think it would too hard. If I follow you, you need a > string of a > known length - but have to populate the string with some > particular bits of > data? > > You could prepare a string, like the following, with markers (of known > length) - then use <@REPLACE> to substitute the markers with your data: > > AAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD > > ......................... > Legend > A = User ID > B = First name > C = Last name > D = Title > > Another Metatag to use in conjunction with <@REPLACE> would be <@PAD> - > available in SP1 or higher. Which can provide whatever filler character to > use around the data. > > From the "Whats_new.PDF". > > <@PAD> > > Syntax <@PAD STR=string NUMCHARS=padToLength [CHAR=padcharacter] > [POSITION=BEFORE|AFTER] [ENCODING=encoding]> > Description The <@PAD> meta tag returns an input string expanded to a > specified length by prefixing or appending a given character as > many times as necessary. It can be used to construct values to be > passed to a function that expects fixed length data or to build up a > table or other preformatted text for display in a monospaced font. > The STR attribute specifies the string to be padded. > The NUMCHARS attribute specifies the length to which the string is > padded. If the specified string to be padded (STR) is longer than the > length specified in NUMCHARS, the original string is returned. > The CHAR attribute specifies the character to use to pad the string. If > more than one character is specified here, only the first character is > used. If the CHAR attribute is absent, the space character is used to > pad the string. > The POSITION attribute is optional, and indicates whether to pad > the beginning (BEFORE) or end (AFTER) of the string. The default is > AFTER. > All attributes of <@PAD> may contain meta tags. > > Example <@PAD STR="alpha" CHAR="x" NUMCHARS="8" > POSITION="after"> > > This example returns "alphaxxx"; that is "alpha" followed by three > "x" characters. > > Hope this helps. Cheers........ > > Scott Cadillac, > Witango.org - http://witango.org > 403-281-6090 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- > Information for the Witango Developer Community > --------------------- > > XML-Extranet - http://xml-extra.net > 403-281-6090 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- > Well-formed Development (for hire) > --------------------- > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wolf, Gene" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 8:53 AM > Subject: Witango-Talk: Help with Strings > > > > OK, I've just run into somethng that I have not seen before, > and not seen > > addressed here. I'm hoping that someone here has come up with something > > similar. > > > > I'm writing a program to interface with an OLD DOS type system. The > > interface requires a series of import records of exactly 252 bytes in > > length. In this record specific data items like, employee number, shift, > > date, etc., have specific columns into which they must be > placed and have > > specific lengths. > > > > What I'd like to do is create a record of 252 bytes, then > "substring" into > > those locations the data for each employee and then write that > record and > do > > the same for the next employee record. Unfortunately substring doesn't > work > > this way and I can't figure out how to make this happen. I > suppose I could > > build this string field by field, and may be reduced to doing > that, but I > > thought there may be a better way. > > > > Anyone have any ideas? > > > > Sincerely, > > Gene Wolf > > Business Systems Analyst > > DRS Optronics, Inc. > > 2330 Commerce Park Drive > > Palm Bay, Florida 32905 > > Phone: 321-309-0685 > > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body > > ________________________________________________________________________ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body ________________________________________________________________________ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body
