I imported my old DOS database into FileMaker 8.5, and find there are
lots of fields that have carriage returns in them. This messes things
up when I use merge fields, for example, if there is a carriage return
at the end of an address1 field, or an apparently empty address2 field
that actually contains an invisible carriage return, I get blank lines
when I make labels, address block, etc. How to find and get rid of
these carriage returns without going through all 16,000 records one by
one?

thanks
Marc

Easiest way is to use search-and-replace in a word processor or text editor.

1) Before export, add a field to your DOS database and make sure it's at the
very end of your export order. Fill this field with a unique character
combination, such as "~!~" -- now you have a convenient record marker in
addition to the usual return.

2) Search for all returns and replace them with another unique identifier,
such as "%R%"

3) Search for ~!~%R% (if you put the record marker field at the end of the
export order) and replace that with a return. Note, you might actually need
to search for

,"~!~"%R%

or similar, to take care of the delimiter and such. But the idea is that the
record marker together with the return marker indicates the true end of
records.

4) Search for any remaining %R% and replace those with ASCII(11). FileMaker
uses ASCII(11) to indicate returns within fields.


<marc.servin (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote