I'm using TRIM on several alphanumeric fields in a DEFINE and then concatenating them together in a separate virtual field in order to remove all trailing spaces that would otherwise appear when I do an ON TABLE HOLD FORMAT ALPHA. However, the single virtual field that contains all of the other fields concatenated/squished together is an A200 format and it has trailing spaces. Is there a way to remove these trailing spaces in my output file?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tamra,

Try something like this

  
DEFINE FILE ...
NEWFIELD/??? = FIELD1 || (' ' | FIELD2) || (' ' | FIELD3) ...;
END

Hope this helps

Or do the trim on the result of the concatenation. Alpha fields by definition are always space-filled to the right if the stuff you put it them doesn't occupy all of the positions.

Or make the format of the defined field A200V. This sometimes causes problems if the field is used in further calculation or hold files (those can be overcome as well), but also makes the field length exactly the same as the resulting value without trailing spaces.

Second thought, if you're saving format ALPHA, it's a fixed length flat file you're creating. Wouldn't you want all fields to be of a specified length occupying a specific position instead of trimming an unknown number of blanks from the record?

Thanks for the replies. TexasStingray, I am already doing what you suggest to remove the trailing spaces on the several fields I'm concatenating, however, my NEWFIELD is an A200 and that field has the trailing spaces.

Ginny & Darin, I also had tried your suggestions already, but making it a variable length field (i.e. A200V) causes the output file to have the length printed as the first column. At least I think it's the length...a value like 000200 is appearing as the leftmost value in my output file.

It's too bad that something that should be so simple is so difficult. That's why I thought I must be missing something obvious. To be honest, I'm trying to create a CSV file with quotes around field values and commas in between...just like WebFOCUS' FORMAT COMMA except that my values are not a fixed length. Darin, I don't want them to be a fixed length because they will ultimately be used in a VLOOKUP and the values can't have spaces because then the VLOOKUP fails to match them. A CSV file gives me more flexibility than saving this as FORMAT EXCEL. Anyway, the last field's values all have trailing spaces which I can't seem to avoid. If I get sometime, I'll try to post some sample code using the CAR file. I'm sure it must do the same thing there.

Try using the formula SQUEEZ, that might work better than TRIM.
The 000200 you get in the A200V field gives the real length of the internal string.
Did you search this site on CSV?
You may find several good suggestions. Take a look at "FORMAT COMMA", I'm rather sure that would do what you want.

Doing a HOLD FORMAT ALPHA (or binary or SAVE or SAVB) will always produce records and fields that are completely filled. That's the way it is supposed to be, because these formats are meant for fixed field/record length.
Putting in a variable field (format AxxV) does not alter that, it only adds the number of characters in the field to the front of the field.

To produce a record with fields that are truly variable you need to use, as Frank indicated, the FORMAT COM. This will give you the contents of the field with "'s around it if the field contains any intermediate space. If you have two or more fields in your request, it will seperate them with a comma.

Hope this helps ...

Question that has not been asked is why you want a variable length output file.

The assumption is, that it is to feed something other than WebFocus.

If that is then case the as GamP says, use COM (COMT if you need a header row)

TAB and TABT will give you the same but TAB delimited.

Try using this

FILEDEF PUTDD DISK fileout.csv 

DEFINE FILE CAR
 Record/A200 = '"'|| COUNTRY || '","' || CAR || '","' || BODYTYPE || '"' ;
 FileOut/I1  = PUTDDREC('PUTDD',5, Record,ARGLEN(200,Record,'I3'), FileOut);
END

TABLE FILE CAR
 PRINT FileOut
 ON    TABLE HOLD
END

The function will write out a text string to a DDNAME during Tabling. One of the parameters is the length of the input, this is changed to the length of the string to only write out a truncated string to the file.

Not sure when this function came out, but it works in 7.1 and 7.6

quote:

PUTDDREC

Don't worry if you can't find a reference to it in the WebFocus documentation.
It appeared in 713 new features as a reporting enhancement but is only documented in
the Data Migrator functions documentation [DN3501785.0408].

As a Data migrator server is exactly the same server as a WebFocus Server or an iWay
Full function server it works the same way.

This a a little brute force, but it should work under all situations:

 
DEFINE FILE CAR
   CONCAT_VAR/A65 = COUNTRY || ',' || CAR || ',' || MODEL || ',' || BODYTYPE ;
END
-RUN
TABLE FILE CAR
   PRINT CONCAT_VAR
ON TABLE SAVE AS TEMPFILE
END
-RUN

-*   Put your output file in a place of your choosing
APP FILEDEF CONCAT_FILE [my-hold-dir]/concat_file.csv (LRECL 65 RECFM V
-RUN

-REPEAT WRITE_LOOP &LINES TIMES

-READ TEMPFILE &TEMP_LINE.A65.
-SET &SQUEEZED_LINE = TRUNCATE(&TEMP_LINE) ;
-WRITE CONCAT_FILE &SQUEEZED_LINE

-WRITE_LOOP 

EricH

EricH,
Very definitely brute force, when there are much simpler ways.

Hmmmm...that gives me a few options to play around with. I'll be trying them out because I truly believe that FORMAT COMMA was padding the fields with trailing spaces. Thanks for the suggestions.

quote:

It appeared in 713 new features as a reporting enhancement but is only documented in
the Data Migrator functions

The Using Functions V7.1.3 documentation has the function defined in it.

I had similar trouble and finally realized I could switch to "FORMAT DFIX DELIMITER ' ' HEADER NO". Might give you some grief if you have more than one field...