Maintain Styles Window

 

This window appears when you select Maintain Styles from the Scenario Maintenance Menu

Purpose

This window lists existing styles and enables you to create new ones, and amend and delete existing styles. Styles define the structure of files to be imported or exported in terms of column titles, separators and control strings.

Move through list

You can move through the list using the cursor and <Page Up> and <Page Down> keys in the standard way.

Add

To add a new style, move the cursor to the line below the last entry in the list. Alternatively you can press <F5> to insert an entry into the list, or <F4> to go into 'Add' mode. The prompts are described in detail below.

Amend

To amend an existing style, move the cursor to the required style and press <Return>.

Delete

To delete an unwanted style, move the cursor to the required style and press <F7>. You are asked to confirm the deletion.

The prompts are:

Style

Up to eight characters to uniquely identify the style.

Description

Up to 25 characters to describe the style.

File

Up to three characters to be used as a default file extension. This is used when importing or exporting files based on this style when an extension is not specified during the import or export procedure. Leave blank for no default extension.

Titles

(Y/N.) Enter Y if each export in this style to a new file is to start with a header containing column titles. Enter N for no header. This item is ignored during imports.

Note

You can suppress titles for individual columns. For further information, see the "Title" paragraph in the Columns for Row Window.

Title source

(Only if you entered Y at the Titles prompt.) This item controls the source of the column headings. It can be one of the following:

§   F – Global field names. These are six character technical field codes which are fixed within the software.

 

§   S – Global short names. These are more friendly names for the Global fields. They can be up to 16 characters and are fixed within the software.

 

§   CColumn names. These are the user-defined column names, which can be up to 16 characters.

Further information

For further information on field names, short names and column names, see the Columns for Row Window.

Unique

(Only if you entered C at the Title Source prompt.) Set this to Y to force each column title to be unique by appending a number when a duplicate is encountered.

Note

You are not prompted for this item if you set the title source to F or S, because Global field and short names are always unique.

Export row ids

(Y/N.) If you want the row id exported at the front of each row, enter Y, otherwise enter N. Row id's are defined in the Rows for Contents List Window.

Delimiter

For fixed length ASCII files, set the delimiter to NONE.

 

For all other formats, specify the character to be used to separate items of information imported or exported in this style. Press <F1> to select from the standard delimiters (COMMA, SPACE, TAB, OTHER, NONE). If you require a non-standard delimiter, enter OTHER. The program then prompts you for the delimiter string to be used.

Delimiter string

If you entered OTHER at the prompt above, enter the ASCII or hexadecimal value of the delimiter. Hexadecimal values must start with a hash (#) character, must contain an even number of hexadecimal digits, and must not be '#00'. ASCII values must not start with a hash character.

 

Otherwise, the character (if visible) is displayed and this item is not prompted for.

Escape sequence

Enter the ASCII or hexadecimal string to be used to indicate that the next character is part of the data and not a delimiter or encapsulation character. Leave blank if this feature is not used in the style.

 

Hexadecimal values must start with a hash (#) character, must contain an even number of hexadecimal digits, and must not be '#00'. ASCII values must not start with a hash character.

Note

The escape sequence must not be the same as the delimiter string.

Text quotes

Set this to the character you want text items are to be encapsulated in. Press <F1> to select from the list of standard values (DOUBLE, SINGLE, NONE). When quotes are in use, any quotes encountered in text items are output twice.

Dates

Enter the output format for dates; e.g. mm/dd/yy or dd-mm-yyyy. Dates can be composed from any combination of day number (dd), month number (mm) or year number (yy or yyyy).

 

The character used to separate the day, month and year segments must not be the same as the delimiter specified above.

Note

Use of four digit year numbers is recommended wherever possible to avoid problems with the millennium.

 

When importing two digit years, the century is determined from the setting of the GSM century start parameter.

Note

For styles used for EDI imports, this must be set to "DD/MM/YY".

Note

The settings of the next two prompts have no effect on constants that are imported or exported.

Leading spaces

This item controls how leading spaces are dealt with when data is imported to, or exported from, Global text fields. Leading spaces are spaces that occur at the beginning of text fields.

 

Enter D if you want to drop leading spaces. Enter K if you want to keep them.

Note

For styles used for EDI imports, this must be set to K.

Trailing spaces

This item controls how trailing spaces are dealt with when data is exported from Global text fields. Trailing spaces are spaces that occur at the end of text fields.

 

Enter D if you want to drop trailing spaces. Enter K if you want to keep them.

Note

The settings of the next two prompts have no effect on constants that are imported or exported.

Leading zeroes

This item controls how leading zeroes are dealt with when data is exported from numeric fields in Global.

 

Enter D if you want to drop leading zeroes. Enter K if you want to keep them.

Trailing zeroes

This item controls how zeroes which occur after the decimal point are dealt with when data is exported from numeric Global fields.

 

Enter D if you want to drop trailing zeroes. Enter K if you want to keep them.

Note

When you export numeric items for which decimal places are defined, the first decimal place is always exported even if it is zero, regardless of the setting of this item.

Example

If you have defined in your contents list that you want to export 9,2 of a 12,2 Global field, and you have chosen to drop leading and trailing zeroes:

§   000000005119.00 is exported as 5119.0.

 

§   000000005119.30 is exported as 5119.3.

 

§   000000005119.34 is exported as 5119.34.

 

§   000000005119.01 is exported as 5119.01.

On completion

Þ Style prompt on the next line.

On exit

Þ Return to the Scenario Maintenance menu.