Variable-length text file

About Variable-length text files

In this case, DataSpider Servista handle variable-length text file (hereafter referred to as variable-length file) describes.

The most basic structure of variable length records in the file is a record.Record represents one line of text file, from the beginning to end of line (newline) is called 1 record.Each record is more than one field (field) has been made, and each record is divided into a plurality of variable length records.

Each filed of the record can have their types(String, Numeric, Date,Tag) specified.String, Number, Date are used to check the integrity of the fields.
Tag is used as record identifier.Tag is a string value.Tags become helpful in a transaction, which is roughly an iteration through the rows until the string value specified appears in a certain position.



The number of the fields and their data types for the each record found in the file do not have to be all the same.



The occurrences of a specific record can be specified, which becomes useful when you need to assure that there are 3 rows of the specified record exist. 0 - unlimited can be specified.

Multiple records treated as one unit is called group(group)(Figure 3). Each record included in a group are arranged in the order they appear in the variable length file. The number of the fields and their data types need to match the entries in the variable length file.

The order and the number of records in a group do not have to be the same as the entries of the variable length file.



The occurrences of groups can be specified 0 - unlimited can be specified.