Re: Working with IFS Files

On 27/07/05, Malchow, Grizzly <GMalchow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> RE: Working with IFS Files
>  > Is there a particular reason you aren't using RPG's extensive
>  > capabilities for working with database files instead of trying to use
> 
>  > APIs intended for stream files?
> 
> Scott,
> Thanks for the feedback.
> In response to your question, there are several reasons. The first, and
> probably the most evident reason, is I need a better understanding of
> working with the IFS.
> The second reason is I have a utility that uses CPYTOIMPF to copy a PF
> to a .csv file. It works pretty well except when the records in the file
> contain quotation marks and commas. I'm sure you know that results in a
> field being ended to early or essentially splitting a field up. I'm
> working on something that will handle these characters when they are
> encountered. Basically "prepare" the file before running the CPYTOIMPF
> command. 

Griz

I have a CRTCSVSTMF utility that lets you specify replacement string &
field delimiters, which would save you have to prepare the file in
advance. It's pretty much a drop in replacement for CPYTOIMPF, though
it's a little slower[1]. Details & source download from
http://dbg400.net/crtcsv.html

Regards, Martin
[1] It writes to a flat file first, then does a CPYTOSTMF - writing to
the IFS direct is much faster. I think Scott did a comparison on
performance a while back; check the archives