Unprintable character appears occasionally during output.

[Chris Kelleher]

I have a "standard" Symix report that dumps 28,000 records to a file during
the end of month processing and ocassionally without rhyme or reason an
unprintable character appears on 1 to 500 of them. When I import int Excel,
the extra character puts my data off by 1 to the right. If I write the
following it works always.

output to c:\temp\tempfile.txt.
for each symix.itemwhse no-lock:
display whse item qty-on-hand.
end.
output close.

But using the "standard" Symix programming method (eg systext, etc.) I get
this! Has anyone ever encountered this before or point me in the right
direction?

TIA

James E. Dupree
PEG # 1999041502


MAIN API AGDBX152 BX152 STEEL
EA 0.000 2.42784 0.00
OF-8 API AGDBX152 BX152 STEEL
EA 0.000 2.42784 0.00

 

[Chris Kelleher]

don't know if it's the same as the problem i had, but looks like the line
would wrap because it default to 80columns.
i fixed it by display ... with width 150. i think it can go up to 254
characters wide.

darrin

 

[Chris Kelleher]

Are you outputting with page size 0 ? If not,
then you are probably getting form feeds in
your data.

Patrick T. Gordon
Senior Software Engineer
Software Services
Symix Computer Systems, Inc.
Columbus, OH 43231
Phone: 614/523-7000
Fax: 614/895-1195

 

[Chris Kelleher]

Actually, it is 650 in version 8.3 (although it may have been less in
earlier versions).

James: One of two things is happening:
1. Your data already has the characters in it.

2. You are getting problems because of the DISPLAY statement. (As Pat
and Darrin already pointed out).

If you are planning on opening this in Excel, use EXPORT instead of
DISPLAY. It will put the data in a format that Excel is already
looking for (quotes around the character fields, correct number of
decimal places, etc.) It will also get rid of all the Frame-related
stuff that DISPLAY gives you by default and is probably causing your
problem.

If you are still having the problem then the characters are in your
data.

HTH,

Zane Appel
Hand Made Software
Progress and Syteline programming services www.HandMadeSoftware.com/Consulting.htm

 

[Chris Kelleher]

We comment out following includes, and replace them with our destination.

/* {lib/rpt-open.i}.*/
output to d:\directory\file-name.csv.

/* {lib/rpt-cloz.i}.*/
output close.

We also use export delimiter "," 'Field1' 'Field2' etc. to generate CSV file
for import into Excel. Use one export statement before MAIN for-each loop to
create a record with field/column names. It goes straight in without import
wizard.

Walter.

 

[Chris Kelleher]

(Carol,
Windows replaces any non printable with the '' (open an executable with
Notepad for proof).)

James,
did you scan data for ASC(field) out of 32-127 ? ... The bizarre char an
also be a fluke in network and/or comm's ... Did you open you outputfile
with Notepad (not excel)
(if you have a Unix DataServer try: hd filename | more)


Eric.