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  3. (brain dead) How do you call text files with data stored with fixed width/length ?

(brain dead) How do you call text files with data stored with fixed width/length ?

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  • M Maximilien

    I have a text file that stores data and each data is fixed size. I know that a name fiels is 10 caracters wide , and then the age is 3 caracters wide. For example (dot represent the end of line for clarity)

    Max 13 .
    Suzanne 34 .
    John Paul 66 .

    CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

    M Offline
    M Offline
    Marc Clifton
    wrote on last edited by
    #7

    Oh look, I'm using an archaic fixed length COBOL-style file format! How's that for the name? ;)

    Latest Articles:
    A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

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    0
    • M Maximilien

      I have a text file that stores data and each data is fixed size. I know that a name fiels is 10 caracters wide , and then the age is 3 caracters wide. For example (dot represent the end of line for clarity)

      Max 13 .
      Suzanne 34 .
      John Paul 66 .

      CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

      A Offline
      A Offline
      Amarnath S
      wrote on last edited by
      #8

      Maximilien wrote:

      Max 13

      Does that indicate your age? :-)

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      • M Maximilien

        I have a text file that stores data and each data is fixed size. I know that a name fiels is 10 caracters wide , and then the age is 3 caracters wide. For example (dot represent the end of line for clarity)

        Max 13 .
        Suzanne 34 .
        John Paul 66 .

        CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

        C Offline
        C Offline
        CPallini
        wrote on last edited by
        #9

        :rolleyes:

        "In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?" -- Rigoletto

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        • B BernardIE5317

          C++ Standard Template Library makes it easy plus a few pesky details even w/o help from an AI agent.

          #include
          #include
          using namespace std;

          int main()
          {
          int lineBreakLength = 2;
          int nameFieldLength = 11;
          int ageFieldLength = 3;
          basic_ifstream _ifstream(L"text file.txt", ios_base::binary);
          char name[16]; name[nameFieldLength] = 0;
          char age[8]; age[ageFieldLength] = 0;
          char line_break[2];
          while(!_ifstream.eof())
          {
          _ifstream.read(name, nameFieldLength);
          _ifstream.read(age, ageFieldLength);
          cout << name << ' ' << age << endl;
          if(!_ifstream.eof()) _ifstream.read(line_break, lineBreakLength);
          }
          return 0;
          }

          "I must have had lessons." - Reverend Jim Ignatowski / Christopher Lloyd

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          J Offline
          Jeremy Falcon
          wrote on last edited by
          #10

          I read it wrong at first too. But, he was asking what to call the file not how to read it. :laugh:

          Jeremy Falcon

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          • M Marc Clifton

            Oh look, I'm using an archaic fixed length COBOL-style file format! How's that for the name? ;)

            Latest Articles:
            A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Jeremy Falcon
            wrote on last edited by
            #11

            How about we create a modern acronym for it.... FUBAR! Fixed-length Unicode Byte Array Record :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

            Jeremy Falcon

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            • C CPallini

              :rolleyes:

              "In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?" -- Rigoletto

              M Offline
              M Offline
              Maximilien
              wrote on last edited by
              #12

              I'm sure they are direct descendant of punch cards. (large public sector system)

              CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

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              • R RickZeeland

                fixed-length text files: Process fixed-length text files with mapping data flows in Azure Data Factory - Azure Data Factory | Microsoft Learn[^] Or fixed-width text Files: How to: read from fixed-width text Files - Visual Basic | Microsoft Learn[^]

                M Offline
                M Offline
                Maximilien
                wrote on last edited by
                #13

                thanks.

                CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

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                • K k5054

                  Except for the part where identifiers starting with _ are reserved for the implementation :(

                  "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants" Chuckles the clown

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                  G Offline
                  Gary Wheeler
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #14

                  FWIW, we've used leading underscores to mark private members as part of our coding conventions since the 1990's and never had an issue.

                  Software Zen: delete this;

                  K 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • G Gary Wheeler

                    FWIW, we've used leading underscores to mark private members as part of our coding conventions since the 1990's and never had an issue.

                    Software Zen: delete this;

                    K Offline
                    K Offline
                    k5054
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #15

                    Fortunately, most implementations use a double underscore for system identifiers, so you're usually OK. But if you get strange error messages that refer to an identifier starting with an underscore, you've probably managed to collide with the compilers internals.

                    "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants" Chuckles the clown

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                    • K k5054

                      Fortunately, most implementations use a double underscore for system identifiers, so you're usually OK. But if you get strange error messages that refer to an identifier starting with an underscore, you've probably managed to collide with the compilers internals.

                      "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants" Chuckles the clown

                      A Offline
                      A Offline
                      Alister Morton
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #16

                      k5054 wrote:

                      you've probably managed to collide with the compilers internals

                      I was tearing my hair out once when I couldn't get a bit of financial code to compile - I had a variable called yield. Turns out there was a yield macro in the windows header to maintain compatibility with 16 bit windows. Sheesh.

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