Re: Formatting an unformatted file

Don/Jeff,

>You could always format it with a PC program first.
>
>An AWK program on the PC could do this. It would be VERY easy to write;
>EXTREMELY easy.
>
>Or VB.

>Have fun; this is the type of stuff that makes programming fun.

I typically use a PC program to preprocess this kind of data.  Of
course, I also have the AWK compiler and realize how trivial AWK makes
this kind of parsing.

I haven't looked at Perl yet, but I've heard some people use it for
things they used to use AWK for, and that it also has very strong text
parsing and formatting features.  There is also a freeward port of
Perl available for the 400 available from the IBM Technical Studio.
Try this link
http://www.as400.ibm.com/tstudio/workshop/tiptools/toolindx.htm or
look under Web Tools under the Developer Resources area in the IBM
Technical Studio.

Aside to Jeff:

I was going to code and send you an AWK program to preprocess the
data, but your text example was too vague.  Tell me the specifics of
what the output file should look like, and I'll show you an AWK
program to do it.

Doug
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