Hi Guys,
What exactly is a delimited Ascii File (.asc)
And what is the difference between ODBC and SQL server !
Thanks
Nitin

Nitin schrieb:
is that.

1. ASCII delimited files.
A delimited ascii file is exported data from any source such as excel,
an application where all data is in ascii format and the fiel length is
delimited by a special character not occuring within the data itself.
e.g.
mr:doe:john:1956/10/03:12345.45: ....
and so on - this is e.g. an ascii delimited file -
field delimited by the character ":"
Record delimited by e.g. linefeeds.

Alternatives are e.g. Fixed length fields or tag delimited files.
COBOL Copybooks are typical fixed length and XML is the example for tag
delimited fileformats and so produce a lot of overhead for little
information.

What is the purpose of this:
This kind of files can be loaded using SQL Loader in to Oracle or BCP in
MS SQL Server or Sybase ASE databases.
Some OLAP Cube Engines might also feed on these. If you use vector
databases such as Sybase IQ (In general no OLAP required) they read
ascii files direct from SQL: LOAD TABLE ..


What is the difference between ODBC and MS SQL Server
grin - you must be a newbie - sorry for teasin' but ok. At least you re
not very much in databases.

ODBC (O PEN D ATA B ASE Connection) is an Interface Specification, first
described by a company called Software AG in Germany. But Implemented
first by Microsoft for the databases Access and SQL Server.

ODBC is generally related to Microsoft but really they were the frist
implementing not specifying it. So it is not their invention.

ODBC is now a general standard between Application software and
Databases that understand SQL. On most databases it is available mut
often not very fast.

MS SQL Server is a relational Database. you might need ODBC to
communicate with it.

HTH
Klaus
KlausATroehlergenriemer!NOSPAMTAG!.de
Greven / Germany

MS SQL Server is