Hello,
I'm having quite a bit of trouble exporting records the way I want to.
Ideally, I would like to finish with a flat ascii file like this :

Number; Name; FirstName; Age ...
22; Smith ; Harry; 36
10144; Ngengo; Uhubu; 51
etc

I don't need any "quotes"around my data but I do need a column-header i.e.
Number; Name; FirstName; Age ...
When I get quotes around my data, this is bad news for the next programme
along when it tries to read the data.
It handles text OK if it is in "quotes", but if it finds numbers in "quotes"
it handles them as text too.
Then it can't do its sums.

I'm doing this from a script.

Any ideas ?
TIA

Chaswicke

In article <45378781$0$5110$ba4acef3 (AT) news (DOT) orange.fr>,
"Chaswicke" <FRChaswicke (AT) wigmoreandwigmore (DOT) net> wrote:

What version of FileMaker? Recent versions can export to Excel directly.

--
For email, change <fake> to <earthlink>
Bill Collins

Version is 8.5 Advanced....
Yes, Bill, you guessed right, I am using Excel ** but ** I don't want the
data in an Excel file, I wan't it in a CSV type file with the header and
without the quotes.

Excel does eventually get to use the data file - but not directly. It opens
it as ODBC *external data* via MSQuery for an Excel self-updating Pivot
table. So, AFAIK, having it as an Excel file to begin with is not an option.

The problem stems from the fact that FM does not seem to recognise its own
number fields as numbers when it exports them to CSV. I may be wrong but, in
the CSV specification, numbers should not be in quotes.

Thanks,

Chaswicke





"Bill" <bbcollins (AT) fake (DOT) net> a écrit dans le message de news:
bbcollins-A3F9AE.22232719102006 (AT)....earthlink.net...

Chaswicke,

Although there is no true standardization of the CSV format, you're
essentially correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values

Perhaps FileMaker needs to consider adding "Strict CSV" as one of its
supported export formats.

Until then, you would need to write a script which builds up a variable with
the correct format, puts the variable into a field, and "Exports Field
Contents" to a text file.

"Chaswicke" <Chaswicke (AT) ChaswickeEvents (DOT) com> wrote

Yes I had envisaged that.
Others, on the FMToday newgroup, advise the same.
I think I'll have to do that.
Isn't this just crazy?

Chaswicke.

"Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> a écrit dans le message de news:
9dudnUfZLa-IEqXYnZ2dnUVZ_oWdnZ2d (AT) comcast (DOT) com...

Just curious -- where/what is the "FMToday" newsgroup, and why are you
seeing other discussion boards behind our backs?

"Chaswicke" <FRChaswicke (AT) wigmoreandwigmore (DOT) net> wrote

I haven't followed the entire thread on this so this may have already been
proposed. You might try using the merge format for your export. I
routinely take data between FileMaker and Excel - both directions - and have
found the merge format much better to deal with. It gives you the headers
and comma separated data without any quotes around data and no scripting is
required.

Hope this helps,

Ken

__________________________________________________ ________

Ken Hallinen
Carnegie Mellon University
Director Financial & Facilities Planning Computing Services


-----Original Message-----
From: Chaswicke [mailto:FRChaswicke (AT) wigmoreandwigmore (DOT) net]
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 4:15 AM
Subject: Re: Export records. Header? Yes please, "Quotes"? No thanks.
Importance: High

Yes I had envisaged that.
Others, on the FMToday newgroup, advise the same.
I think I'll have to do that.
Isn't this just crazy?

Chaswicke.

"Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> a écrit dans le message de news:
9dudnUfZLa-IEqXYnZ2dnUVZ_oWdnZ2d (AT) comcast (DOT) com...