Reply-To: erik.wachtmeester@bighole.iaf.nl
Dirk Stuijfzand wrote in a message to Ben Cavanagh:
 DS> Create a temp DBF with one CHAR field, lenght >= longest line length
 DS> in txt file. Example: TEXT.DBF, field LINE, type C, LEN 80
 DS> USE TEXT
 DS> ZAP
 DS> APPE FROM text.doc SDF
 DS> This is very simple, even works in dBaseIII! Now you have a DBF where
 DS> every line from the textfile is a record in TEXT.DBF. 
     [...]
Nice solution! But intuitively I would opt for a more low level approach 
(using
more code) instead of this temp DBF approach. Maybe because I did a lot of
Delphi and C++ coding lately? ;-)
Something like this (off the top of my hat, and definitely not tested!):
<----------
#define END_OF_LINE chr(13) + chr(10)
#define BLOCKSIZE 8192
local nHandle, nPointer, cLine, cBuffer
local cRemainder := ''
local lContinue := .t.
// open PERSON table exclusively
dbusearea( .t.,, 'PERSON.DBF',, .f. )
// open textfile in readonly mode
nHandle := fopen( 'text.doc', 0 )
if ( nHandle != -1 )
  // textfile opened successfully, so we're ready to go
  do while ( lContinue )
    cBuffer := freadstr( nHandle, BLOCKSIZE )
    lContinue := ( len( cBuffer ) + len( cRemainder ) > 0 )
    // dummy value to initialise the following do while loop
    nPointer := -1
    // get individual lines from text buffer and process them
    do while ( nPointer != 0 )
      nPointer := at( END_OF_LINE, cBuffer )
      if ( nPointer != 0 ) .or. !empty( cRemainder )
        cLine := cRemainder + left( cBuffer, nPointer - 1 )
        cBuffer := substr( cBuffer, nPointer + len( END_OF_LINE ) - 1 )
        // clear possible remainder, because it's parsed already
        cRemainder := ''
        // handle text to field conversions here
        dbappend()
        fieldput( fieldpos( 'NAME' ), substr( cLine, 1, 30 ) )
        fieldput( fieldpos( 'PHONE' ), substr( cLine, 60, 15 ) )
      else
        // save possible remainder of text buffer
        cRemainder := cBuffer
      endif
    enddo
  enddo
  fclose( nHandle )
else
  // error opening textfile
endif
// close PERSON table
dbclosearea()
---------->
I really do like your solution, but since I started thinking about my 
olution
already, I thought I'd add it to the thread. For better or for worse... ;-)
My solution uses a 'little bit' more code, but when converted to a library
routine you can reuse it easily, and with a few changes it can be converted 
o
reading from e.g. a comport, etc. instead of a textfile.
Regards,
Erik 
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