RE: process a list of files

You should consider encoding any 'special' character that appears in your
data.  In XML for example, there are about five special symbols.  If they
appear in a data item, they must be encoded.  In that way, data items
cannot corrupt the parsing algorithm.

If you encode properly, you can use any special characters you desire, and
then you won't have to scan and remove them from the whole database.  On
top of that, you won't have to worry about changing all of your input
programs to prevent that character from being inserted into the database at
a later date.

Partial XML encoding scheme:
< &lt;
 > &gt;
& &amp;

Example Data:
FIELDA:  Arm & Hammer <baking soda>
Encodes As:
<FIELDA>Arm &amp; Hammer &lt;baking soda&gt;</FIELDA>

There is a bit of extra work to scan for encoded symbols and decode them at
the other end, but this will prevent the parser from getting fouled up on a
special character.

At 10:10 AM 11/8/01, Ray, Adam wrote:
>What gets done with the *'s once they are found has yet to be decided. The
>reason I need to find them all is because the * (or any special character)
>can be used as a delimiter when sending files electronically. Any field
>containing an * will cause whatever program is processing the data to think
>it's the end of a field when it really isn't. Using a different delimiter
>has been discussed, but whatever we decide to use, we have to scan for that
>character in all our files.
>Keep the ideas coming. I'm willing to try just about anything.
>-Adam

Regards,
Rich