Boundary Specification dialog box

Use this dialog box to specify delimiting characters for lines and fields in ANSI files.

Instructions

1.	Select the format in which you want to specify the boundary characters:

Text

Select this option to indicate you will specify boundary characters in plain text.

Decimal

Select this option to indicate you will specify boundary characters as decimal values, separated by spaces, commas, or semicolons, if more than one is required, where each value corresponds to the ANSI code of a character. This option is useful when the boundary characters cannot be represented by any of the characters in your keyboard.

For a list of ANSI character codes, refer to ANSI Character Codes.

Hexadecimal

Select this option to indicate you will specify boundary characters as hexadecimal values, separated by spaces, commas, or semicolons, if more than one is required, where each value corresponds to the ANSI code of a character. This option is useful when the boundary characters cannot be represented by any of the characters in your keyboard.

For a list of ANSI character codes, refer to ANSI Character Codes.

2.	Type the boundary characters in the Value box:

For

Action

Text	Type the characters on your keyboard that correspond to the boundary characters.

Decimal

Type the decimal values that correspond to the ANSI code of the boundary characters, separated by spaces, commas, or semicolons, if more than one character is required.

Hexadecimal

Type the hexadecimal values that correspond to the ANSI code of the boundary characters, separated by spaces, commas, or semicolons, if more than one character is required.

You can change the format of a boundary character any time. If you do so, Predictive Systems Lab will carry an automatic translation (see example below).

3.	Click the OK button to close the dialog box and save the changes you have made.

This dialog box requires you to specify a valid delimiting character before allowing you to exit. Valid delimiting characters are those that are not already in use delimiting some other aspect of this file. For example, the space character cannot delimit lines and fields simultaneously.

Sample Case

Suppose we set some boundary characters to the sequence CR/LF in decimal format, as shown in the following figure:

SeparatorDlgA

For a list of ANSI character codes, refer to ANSI Character Codes.

You then select Hexadecimal and the display changes to the hexadecimal numbers 0D (13) and 0A (10),

SeparatorDlgB

You then select Text, however this time the display changes to undistinguishable characters.

SeparatorDlgC

You may not be able to specify non-printable characters directly from your keyboard except by escape sequences that are hard to remember, but you are able to paste such characters from the Clipboard to the Value box when you are working under the Text specification format.

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