Question

Removing Blank Lines at End of Data Transformation to Text File Output

Asked by: dplittle

I'm writing a new interface to an old system and as part of the solution I have to output three text files and then append them all together into one file. I've got everything working as a series of data transformation steps to create the three files and then one last ActiveX step using FileSystemObject to open each file in turn, read it into a variable and then write it to the combined file.

It's all working fine except the transformation steps are adding a blank line to the bottom of the three source files. When I concatenate the three together I get a blank line between each output. I need to get rid of these blanks lines. Is there an option somewhere on the transformation I'm missing? Any other ideas on the best way to do this? I'd rather not have to reopen the combined file, read each line one at a time and then only outpu the non-empty lines.

Thanks

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Asked On
2007-03-05 at 15:14:13ID22429722
Tags

empty

,

file

,

lines

,

text

Topics

MS SQL DTS

,

MS SQL Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: nmcdermaidPosted on 2007-03-05 at 15:16:50ID: 18658233

Have you tried using this DOS syntax instead of ActiveX:

COPY FIle1.TXT + FIle2.TXT + FILE3.TXT OutputFIle.TXT

As I'm sure you agree theres a lot less code there and it'll probably fix your problem.

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2007-03-05 at 15:19:41ID: 18658258

For a pure DTS solution that is pretty much your only solution.  I cannot tell why you are getting blank lines, but I would suspect that there may be an error in your code.  Perhaps you can post it. If you have verified that this is coming from the transformation than you can code around that. But it should not be doing that.  Can you tell us the source for the individual files?

As another aproach consider that the DOS Copy command can be used to append files as in:
Copy FileA + FileB + FileC FileX
This would seem a little cheesy, but if the files are very big, I suspect this would be vastly faster than writing one line at a time.

 

by: dplittlePosted on 2007-03-05 at 15:32:49ID: 18658331

I guess I could use the copy approach and then rename the file (it changes each time I run the process).

I guess I was trying to keep down the number of external batch files to call. Here's the ActiveX step code I'm using right now.

'**********************************************************************
'  Visual Basic ActiveX Script
'************************************************************************

Function Main()

      Const ForReading = 1
      Const ForAppending = 8
      
      Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
      
      sName = DTSGlobalVariables("gvOutputDir").Value & "\" & DTSGlobalVariables("gvOutletFile").Value

      Set objMainFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(sName, ForAppending, True)
      
      Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("\\10.0.1.99\VIP\out\retailhdr.txt", ForReading)
      strContents = objFile.ReadAll
      objFile.Close
      objMainFile.WriteLine strContents

      Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("\\10.0.1.99\VIP\out\retaildetail.txt", ForReading)
      strContents = objFile.ReadAll
      objFile.Close
      objMainFile.WriteLine strContents

      Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("\\10.0.1.99\VIP\out\retailtrailer.txt", ForReading)
      strContents = objFile.ReadAll
      objFile.Close
      objMainFile.WriteLine strContents
      
      objMainFile.Close

      Main = DTSTaskExecResult_Success
End Function

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2007-03-05 at 17:56:04ID: 18658989

>>I guess I could use the copy approach and then rename the file (it changes each time I run the process). <<
Why?  Create it on the fly.

>>I guess I was trying to keep down the number of external batch files to call.<<
You do not need a batch file.

Change:
objMainFile.WriteLine strContents

To:
objMainFile.Write strContents

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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