Hallo Ted
KM> Did you get my message regarding this topic? I think the answer is 
KM> to give  each data field a fixed length 
 
TM> I got it, and as far as I recall I've answered that that would be an
Probably your answer got lost during the problems I mentioned concerning the 
reliability of my feed.
Now, if you do not want a fixed length record data base, we must invent a 
variable length one. Perhaps like this:
You take one ascii char (say 200) as field separator, and enclose each field 
in a fixed ascii char (say 201 for field 1, 202 for field2, ...):
asc200asc201var1asc201asc200asc202var2asc202asc200 ... . 
Now you can use 4DOS functions like @word for parsing again, even for 
multi-word fields, and it's easy to  extract a choosen field, a little math 
can give you field names etc.
Let us reserve line 0 for database information (record number, field names, 
etc.), and let us call the result XDBASE (grin).
Basically these are the 2 possibilities for your project. Now it's up to 
you...
Grsse aus Ostrhauderfehn, 
*Klaus Meinhard*
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