Has this legacy format been replaced as we have discovered s...

[Ian Dalton]

Has this legacy format been replaced as we have discovered some current code that runs ok that uses this format

[NYCBabak .]

Syntax is still in the doc and it still works. But admittedly, Ive never seen it in the GUI.

https://webfocusinfocenter.informationbuilders.com/wfappent/TL5s/TL_lang/source/out100.htm#dout1010165

[Ian Dalton]

Ok many thanks for the link and confirmation. Assume there is no replacement that does the same thing as LOTUS sounds pretty dated !

[NYCBabak .]

It creates a .prn file which contains text in " and comma separated columns. The closest format to that is HOLD FORMAT COM.

[Ian Dalton]

Yes COM is similar but ignores spaces. Will stick with LOTUS as it seems to be still an official format. Many thanks for your advice.

[David Briars]

Yes LOTUS continues to be supported, per the Creating Reports manual, so no reason to change.

For a future new requirement with the need to create a delimited sequential file with trailing blanks, you would probably want to check out the DFIX HOLD FORMAT.

[Warren Hinchliffe]

I agree with David. DFIX is configurable and probably a much better option for the future.

[Ian Dalton]

Thanks guys - is DFIX new

[Manoj Chaurasia]

No it has been around for a long time.

[Ian Dalton]

Thanks Chuck - just one point though, I played around and the closest I can get to FORMAT LOTUS is FORMAT DFIX DELIMITER , ENCLOSURE " PRESERVESPACE YES however sadly it doesnt preserve leading spaces for the numeric fields. See attached fileLOTUSvDFIX.txt (3.5 KB)

[Manoj Chaurasia]

Gotcha Well at least you can stick with FORMAT LOTUS you just have to hardcode it into the code.

[Ian Dalton]

Yes will stick with LOTUS but DFIX has possibilities and flexibility although unable to produce fixed length record output if you have numeric data.