How do I create a fixed length field size flat file (txt) in Crystal reports ?

You said that you tried concatenating the columns together, but how did you do it?  Did you just put the fields in the detail section of a report?  It would be more or less impossible to get fixed column lengths and positions that way.

 What do your fields look like?  Are the text columns a fixed length with trailing spaces at the end?  How do the number columns need to be formatted?

 Basically, you can combine the fields into one record with specific formatting (field 1 in columns 1 - 10, field 2 in columns 11 - 25, etc.) using a formula.  The formula would combine the fields into one long string and then you'd put that formula on the report, instead of the individual fields.  The specifics will depend on your fields: How do the numbers need to be formatted?  Do the string fields need to be padded out to a preset length?  etc.

 For example, let's say that you had a string field that needed to be padded out, if necessary, to 25 characters and a numeric field that needed to have 8 digits to the left of the decimal point and 2 to the right, with leading zeros.  Your formula might look something like:

Left ({string field} + Space (25), 25) + CStr ({number field}, "00000000.00")


 You'd do the same kind of thing for each field in your record.  If you need delimiters between each field (eg. a comma or tab), just add those in between the fields.  You can use ChrW (9) for a tab character.

 James

Exporting to text can be tricky, but here are some guidelines:

• All fields should be formatted as text/strings in Crystal Reports. 
• Set the printer to 'No Printer (optimize for screen display' and set all margins to 0 - margins are irrelevant in text files 
• Remove all formatting, such as bolded, underlined or italicized fonts - they're irrelevant in fixed width text files 
• Remove all column headers, footers, etc... - they're irrelevant in fixed width text files 
• You may need headers and footers in your file, but they're generally not column headers and footers in a fixed width file - the files I've exported tend to have their own header and footer layouts as well as detail layouts
   
• Use a fixed width font like Courier New or Lucida Console.  The default settings for a text document in notepad are Lucida Console @ 10 pts, so set the font size in Crystal Reports to 10 
• When you use a fixed width font, you can size the fields to be exactly as wide as they need to be.  Make sure you line every field up next to each other so there's no white spaces between them 
• Alternately,you can add all fields into a single formula field and just place it on the page.
   
• Export the file as .txt, 12 chars/inch and 0 for the pagination (unless you need the file paginated, of course) 
• If your file requires is 148 characters wide, it'd help if your page layout was at least 148 characters wide, so you have enough room to work.  Once you've laid out all the fields, you can change the page size back, leaving some of the fields hanging off the right side - they'll still export.