Export to Fixed-Width Format

1

Hi All,
Can anyone advise how I could easily export to a fixed-width format text file instead of delimited?
e.g. Column 1 always 10 chars, Column 2 always 15 chars…
This requirement is still quite common when dealing with older systems and high-volume processing.
(You can see similar functionality in MS Access - Export to Text file)
Thanks for any help!
Regards,
Dave

2

Hi Dave,

with a bit of preparation you can use the “Export to delimited file” action to produce a fixed-width file. The logic is:

  • append the column headers as the 1st row
  • use function padstart() to pad values with spaces
  • export into a text file without headers and delimiters

See below an example:

export-fixed-width.morph (3.5 KB)

image
image.png1388×553 27.3 KB

3

Hi Dmitri,
Thanks for the response.
The Easymorph PAD functions do not seem to cutoff the data at the pad width though? So to format a text field (e.g. address) in Easymorph I would also need a LEFT function as well to make sure the contents never exceeded the defined column width. I will also need to change to PADEND so that any source data is always visible.
Cheers,
Dave

4

That’s correct, the PAD functions don’t cut off. For cutting off they should be wrapped in a LEFT or RIGHT function.