00012: How to export your BBx data files to ASCII

Title:

How to export your BBx data files to ASCII

Description:

If you just want to throw the BBx-delimited fields into an ASCII-delimited file and figure out the data on the other side, you can do this. Something like the following logic should work: 

1) Open the file. 
2) Get the record length. 
3) Create an empty STRING file. 
4) start a loop that uses READ RECORD. 
A) Create an empty export string. 
B) Parse the record for the first $0A$ delimiter. Be sure to allow for trailing nulls (though I think that would indicate a corruption–all the fields should end with $0A$). 
C) Add each field to the empty string, encapsulating with something like $22$+field$+$22$+”,”. 
D) Strip the trailing comma from your export string. 
E) Write the export string to the STRING file. 

And there you have a generic ASCII export program, but remember that it will only export delimited fields, not fixed-length fields. You will have to parse the data somewhere, and that will require a knowledge of the file structures. 

It would help if you had a valid data dictionary for the file set you need to export. You could use the above logic to write a “custom” export program without too much effort, drawing information from the data dictionary as you go. 

Last Modified: 02/25/1998 Product: PRO/5 Operating System: All platforms

BASIS structures five components of their technology into the BBx Generations.