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Record Definition

In this dialog you define the structure of the selected file by selecting the type and the encoding, entering a field separator and specifying fields.

Step-by-Step

  1. Select one of the three file types: Delimited, Fixed Length and SAP/AIS (SAP Audit Format). Depending on this selection you can define further properties.
  2. Specify a corresponding encoding. Note that if the IDEA ASCII version is used, the UTF-8 or the UTF-16 encoding respectively will be converted to ANSI. This can only be done for Unicode characters that have an equivalent in the ANSI code.
  3. Click the arrow next to Field separator and select the character to be used to separate fields. If the Standard Import Routine will be used in countries with different standards select the detect option. In this case the corresponding character has to be identified when the macro is run. This option is only required for files of the Delimited type.
  4. Select the corresponding text encapsulator from the Text encapsulator drop-down list. Note that the text encapsulators cannot be the same characters as the field separators. This option is only required for files of the Delimited type.
  5. The Header lines to ignore option is used to exclude one or several headers from the import.
  6. For Fixed Length files you have to specify the correct length for each record (including separator) in the file.
  7. You can either enter the fields manually or copy them from IDEA. To copy the fields open the Field Manipulation dialog box in IDEA, copy the fields and add them using the Paste an IDEA record description from IDEA's Field Manipulation Dialog icon. The name of these fields will be shown in IDEA. Note that the field names have to be unique.
  8. Select a type (Number, Character, Date or Time).
  9. In the From/Len field enter the length of a column or the offset position in case of a fixed length file. For files in the Delimited format you can also enter the hash tab (#). SmartAnalyzer will determine the length during the import.
  10. Enter a value for the fixed length files in the To field.
  11. In the Dec field enter the number of the decimal places for the numeric fields.
  12. You have to enter some parameters for the Date and Time fields. Make sure that the date mask that may be available was adjusted to the format of the original data. If you are not sure which separator is used, enter a question mark followed by the supposed separator. In this case the corresponding separator has to be identified by the preliminary routine.
  13. The Description field is optional.
  14. You can apply the structure by clicking Apply and Close.

To delete one or several fields you have to select them and click the Delete one or more selected rows icon.

With the arrows you can change the order of the fields. If you have copied the fields from IDEA, you cannot modify the order.