Q143245: How to Strip Quotation Marks from an ASCII Delimited Text File

Article: Q143245
Product(s): Microsoft FoxPro
Version(s): MACINTOSH:2.6a; MS-DOS:2.6a; WINDOWS:2.6a,3.0,3.0b
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbcode
Last Modified: 11-FEB-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, version 2.6a 
- Microsoft FoxPro for Windows, version 2.6a 
- Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, version 2.6a 
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b 
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SUMMARY
=======

Typical methods of generating ASCII text files place double quotation marks
around character fields. Sometimes these quotation marks aren't wanted. This
article presents a way to remove the quotation marks programmatically. If there
are double quotation marks embedded in the data itself, however, this method
cannot be used.

MORE INFORMATION
================

To remove quotation marks from an ASCII text file programmatically, you must
first place the file in a memo field. Then the STRTRAN() function can be used to
replace each instance of double quotations with a blank space. The corrected
contents of the memo field can then be copied to an ASCII text file.

To demonstrate this technique, type and run the following program named
Myprog.prg.

    * myprog.prg
     SET SAFETY OFF

     * Create a table named "mymemo" with one memo field named "notes"
     * Append a blank record to the table
     CREATE TABLE mymemo ( notes M(10))
     APPEND BLANK

     IF !USED("mymemo")
          USE mymemo IN 0
     ENDIF

     IF !USED("customer")
          USE customer IN 0
     ENDIF

     * copy the company and CONTACT fields to an ASCII tab-delimited text
     * file
     SELECT CUSTOMER
     COPY TO mytext.txt FIELDS company, contact TYPE DELIMITED WITH TAB

     * Place the ASCII file, Mytext.txt, into the memo field notes in the
     * mymemo table
     SELECT mymemo
     APPEND MEMO mymemo.notes FROM mytext.txt OVERWRITE

     * Replace each instance of  double quotes with a blank
     REPLACE notes WITH STRTRAN(notes,'"',"")

     * Copy the corrected quoteless text back into another ASCII text file
     COPY MEMO notes TO quoteles.txt

     * Close tables
     USE
     SELECT customer
     USE
     * end program

Using any text editor, open Mytext.txt and observe the double quotation marks
around the character fields. Then open Quoteles.txt to confirm that the
quotation marks have been removed.

Additional query words: FoxWin FoxDos FoxMac VFoxWin quotes

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Keywords          : kbcode 
Technology        : kbHWMAC kbOSMAC kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbFoxproSearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbFoxPro260aMac kbFoxPro260aDOS kbFoxPro260a kbVFP300 kbVFP300b
Version           : MACINTOSH:2.6a; MS-DOS:2.6a; WINDOWS:2.6a,3.0,3.0b

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