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Data Interchange-Wildcards in Input Filename

Article Number: 396 | Rating: Unrated | Last Updated: Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 4:19 PM

Datafile Software

Data Interchange – Wildcards in Input Filename

This change to the ASCII input procedure in the Data Interchange options, for both ProFiler and Report Generator, allows the ability to specify the input filename using wildcards – i.e. C:\IMPORT\*.CSV. Any files that match the entered pattern will be imported. In addition, the processed files will be moved into a nominated folder for later reference.

Against the prompt for the External File Pathname you can now use the wildcard characters * and ? within the filename (but not within the pathname or suffix). You can therefore set the pathname such as ‘C:\IMPORT\S*.CSV’, ‘C:\IMPORT\SALES??.CSV’ or ‘C:\IMPORT\*.CSV’.

If using wildcards in the import filename you also need to set the option to Move to History Foldernominating a location to copy the file to once it has been imported. This option can also optionally be used if specify an explicit pathname.

Notes

If set to ‘Create New File’ but not ‘If Create, Append Records’ then any existing records will be cleared at the start of the import process and then all the files matching the import will be added to the database.

Similarly, if merging the import files into existing data and set to ‘Warn errors if merge’ and to ‘Print Warnings’ then one report will be created to cover errors in any of the import files.

Finally the totals display for records imported will include the count from all import files.

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