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Reading From A File

Hi,

I have been trying to work on a project that requires me to read a file with information in it. After reading the file, I am going to process the data and then write an output text file. Now the file that I am working on as an input is not in any particular format. But I do have the definitions for the mainframe extract. It is not delimited and also one row can go over a line; while some lines are only on one line...

Example:

AS030210034RESERVESIE01212003322 322 N 0000000FD0121200305565501212003055655012120030557080121200306000501212003060332 01212003061226 T390 5008 73K 02288052 06951549 FW 2905 DERRICK DR NE23 E23 E23 (MOVADO TR & GUNTHER) 100NY001

I have been trying to work on this and pretty much pulled out most of my hair; if not all of it.

Any help is appreciate and thanks in advance for all your help,

Raj Antony V

aeklund

Can you define which parts of the file you want broken down info fields.. also are those spaces or tabs seperating each field?

RajAntonyV

ASKER

Lets say hypothetically, I wanted the only the ones that had the asterick next to them. Also, another thing of importance is that:

1. I haven't seen a row delimiter on the extract. So I don't know where to stop on extracting. I was hoping the fields that started with "FI" designate that as a new line...

2. I haven't seen any tabs or spaces as a column delimiter either. Only have the field defintions to work with. Is it possible to reach character to character or lets say from character 10 to character 12 in VB?

I have been trying to read the file as binary file access and haven't had any luck on it yet...

Sample field definitions are listed below. If you need all of it please let me know...

01 TSFR-CALL-SEGMENT.
02 TSFR-CALL-DATA-REC.
*************** 04 TSFR-CALL-SEG-TYPE PIC XX.
88 TSFR-FDES VALUE 'FI'.
88 TSFR-PILC-HDR VALUE 'PI'.
88 TSFR-PILC-CALL VALUE 'PS'.
88 TSFR-PILC-TRLR VALUE 'PU'.
88 TSFR-EMC VALUE 'EI'.
04 TSFR-CALL-DATA-AREA.
06 TSFR-CALL-NR PIC X(9).
06 TSFR-CALL-AGENCY.
************** 08 TSFR-CALL-AGEN PIC X.
08 TSFR-CALL-AGTYPE PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-DAREA PIC X(4).
06 TSFR-CALL-HDAREA PIC X(4).
06 TSFR-CALL-INC-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-ORIG-CALL PIC X(10).
************** 06 TSFR-CALL-NBR-TYPE PIC X(10).
06 TSFR-CALL-911 PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-JURISC PIC XX.
06 TSFR-CALL-DR.
08 TSFR-CALL-DR-YR PIC XX.
08 TSFR-CALL-DR-NBR PIC 9(7).
06 TSFR-CALL-JURISC PIC XX.
06 TSFR-CALL-RC-DATE PIC X(8).
************** 06 TSFR-CALL-RC-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-ET-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-ET-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-DI-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-DI-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-EN-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-EN-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OK-DATE PIC X(8).

Thanks and appreciate all your help.

aeklund

2) Yes you can do from char to char.. use the mid$() function, which you can specify the start, and length... so from char 10 to 12 would be mid$(string, 10, 2)

In order to successfully parse this file, you have to find something in common for the data you want to grab. Either where it starts, a tab before, a new line char, etc... then you can start parsing it...

CD-Softy

How are the records written to the file? Are they not perhaps fixed length records?

Email me the sample file and i'll code up some script for it. but you must let me know what fields are needed and what rules apply for those fields.

RajAntonyV

ASKER

Hello,

The sample records are a mainframe dump that is being FTPed to a new location, from where it must processed using VB, and then inserted into a SQL Server database.

All I have the the field defintion or what I got from the guy as the field definitions. But I am not sure how to determine when the end of line occurs... One thing I had to go on is maybe target the "DI" or "FI" as the beginning of a new line.

Sample File From MainFrame Data

DI030210039FFFIREFIRE01212003112 112 N 0000000FD0121200306270901212003062814012120030628250121200306300901212003063403 01212003063635 P394 2304 48R 02330980 06985684 FW 4701 GOLD SPIKE DR NK24 K23 Q26 (MALCOLM BL & TAILHEAD) B13 3 1N 0 1 040950040950JOHNB/////SWDISP 345 567 78
FD030210039FF01212003112 00000000TAILD 00101349003062814040950RIS2 000 TEXT:CONSEFS///GENERAL \COMP:BUBBA/////SEDISP \PH:874 457 9847

02 TSFR-CALL-DATA-REC.
***04 TSFR-CALL-SEG-TYPE PIC XX.
88 TSFR-KEIR VALUE 'FI'.
88 TSFR-LKE9-HDR VALUE 'DI'.
88 TSFR-KE84-CALL VALUE 'PS'.
88 TSFR-MDKE-TRLR VALUE 'PU'.
88 TSFR-EMS VALUE 'EI'.
04 TSFR-CALL-DATA-AREA.
***06 TSFR-CALL-NR PIC X(9).
06 TSFR-CALL-AGENCY.
08 TSFR-CALL-AGEN PIC X.
***08 TSFR-CALL-AGTYPE PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-DAREA PIC X(4).
06 TSFR-CALL-HDAREA PIC X(4).
06 TSFR-CALL-INC-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-ORIG-CALL PIC X(10).
06 TSFR-CALL-NBR-TYPE PIC X(10).
***06 TSFR-CALL-800 PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-JURISC PIC XX.
06 TSFR-CALL-DR.
08 TSFR-CALL-DR-YR PIC XX.
08 TSFR-CALL-DR-NBR PIC 9(7).
***06 TSFR-CALL-JURISC PIC XX.
06 TSFR-CALL-RC-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-RC-TIME PIC X(6).
***06 TSFR-CALL-ET-DATE PIC X(8).
***06 TSFR-CALL-ET-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-DI-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-DI-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-EN-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-EN-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OK-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-OK-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-AR-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-AR-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-CL-DATE PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-CL-TIME PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-DISPO PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-RD PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-FD PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-ED PIC X(8).
06 TSFR-CALL-MAP.
08 TSFR-CALL-MAP-PAGE PIC X(4).
08 TSFR-CALL-MAP-X PIC X.
08 TSFR-CALL-MAP-Y PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-MAP-COORDS.
08 TSFR-CALL-COORD-X PIC X(10).
08 TSFR-CALL-COORD-Y PIC X(10).
06 TSFR-CALL-CITY PIC X(13).
06 TSFR-CALL-LOC PIC X(40).
06 TSFR-CALL-APT PIC X(7).
06 TSFR-CALL-AREA PIC XX.
06 TSFR-CALL-GEO-FLAG PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-PUNIT PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OFF1 PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OFF2 PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OFF3 PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OFF4 PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OFF5 PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-OFF6 PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-CROSS PIC X(40).
* TSFR-CALL-BEAT 4 DIGITS PER STEVE GILLOW 11/12/2002
06 TSFR-CALL-BEAT PIC X(4).
06 TSFR-CALL-DUPE-TO PIC X(9).
06 TSFR-CALL-PRIORITY PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-IN-PROG PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-PRIOR PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-ACT-CU PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-PH-FLAG PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-OS-FLAG PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-OV-FLAG PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-ALRM-LVL PIC X.
06 TSFR-CALL-XREF.
08 TSFR-CALL-FIRE PIC X(11).
08 TSFR-CALL-LAW PIC X(11).
08 TSFR-CALL-EMS PIC X(11).
06 TSFR-CALL-ENT-DID PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-DISP-DID PIC X(6).
06 TSFR-CALL-REPORTING-PARTY.
08 TSFR-CALL-NAM PIC X(72).
08 TSFR-CALL-ADR PIC X(50).
08 TSFR-CALL-PHON PIC X(10).
08 TSFR-CALL-ORIGIN PIC X(6).

Thanks for all your help and please let me know if you need anything else...

Raj Antony V

SOLUTION

aeklund

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GrahamSkan

They are fixed-width records without a delimiter. The field lengths are contained in the brackets following the PIC X, or the number of Xs if there are no brackets.
The '88' (constants) have an implicit length from their defined values.
You could use the 88 values to find the beginning of the record, but I think that you should just use this as a check against your calculations.
Note: If it's not 88, the first number on the line denotes a hierarchy level. The field size is only defined at the lowest level.

I'd be tempted to create a user type from the definition file by it into the declarations section of a module. Toy could replace the 'PIC(' with 'As String *', the ')' with nothing and the '-' as '_'. I've done a bit of it so:
Type CobolRecord
TSFR_CALL_DAREA As String * 4
TSFR_CALL_HDAREA As String * 4
TSFR_CALL_INC_DATE As String * 8
TSFR_CALL_ORIG_CALL As String * 10
TSFR_CALL_NBR_TYPE As String * 10
End Type

This will ensure that you can define a variable as this type
Dim cr as CobolRecord

'Open the file in binary mode and to use the Get statement:

Do Until EOF(f)
Get #f,,cr
HDarea = cr.TSFR_CALL_HDAREA
loop

GrahamSkan

Sorry, I was a bit misleading about the 88 values.
The 88 values are permitted alternatives, used here to define the record type. The length is in the actually define at the 04 level above, so you might want your programme to check that each record begins with one of the 5 values specified.

RajAntonyV

ASKER

Hello

The problem with doing that is there is differences in the length and definitions between the first line and the next line. See the first line is longer than the second line and they have a different definition compared to the first line.

DF030210034GGGGGGGGGG01212003322 322 N 0000000FD0121200305565501212003055655012120030557080121200306000501212003060332 01212003061226 T390 5008 73K 02288052 06951549 FW 2905 DEREK DR NE23 E23 E23 (Throckmorton TR & James) 100NY001
FS030210034GG01212003322 00000000DISPATCH00301412003055708040950TDSE 000 E23,

FU030210034FFE23 E23 E23 012120030557080121200306000501212003060332 01212003061120 01212003061120 N

Right now, when I use a "Line Input#" it reads the different lines as a single line; starting with the first line and going all the way to end of the last line.

I don't think it is seeing the end of line for each line and reading them as separate lines. There is supposed to be an end of line character ({CL}{RF}) ( I believe) for each line when mainframe dumps it.

Anyway, any help is appreciated and thanks in advance for your help,

Raj Antony V

SOLUTION

CD-Softy

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GrahamSkan

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CleanupPing

Hi RajAntonyV,
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GPrentice00

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GPrentice00

No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.
I will leave a recommendation in the Cleanup topic area that this question is:

-->Split between aeklund and CD-Softy and GrahamSkan

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