Subject Re: STUFF() returns incorrect character From John Gillen <johngillen@cox.net> Date Mon, 04 Jan 2021 00:01:05 -0500 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started Akshat Kapoor Wrote: > Good Morning John, > > > I am using low level file functions (FOPEN(), FEOF(), FREAD(), FWRITE() and FCLOSE() to parse a text file. As part of this parsing, I am using three commands to replace characters in the incoming file: mstring = <incoming string>; mpos = AT(<where character to replace is found in the incoming string>);  mstring = STUFF(mstring,mpos,1,"") to do the character replacement. > > > > If I run these three steps in the Command window, it works as expected. > > > > If I run these three steps in a program, instead of NULL, I get a comma (,). > > > > I tried "",'', and NULL CHR(0) all with the same result - a comma. > > > > dBASE 8/Windows 10 64bit > > Is by any chance , the next character. > For eg you replace the 10th character and , is the 11th character. > > It would help us if you paste the exact code for the replacement. > We do not need the full prg but just the portion between file open and > file close. > > It would also help us to know if the source file is of unix origin or > windows origin. There are minor differences. > > And if you can briefly outline the cause we may be able to suggest > workarounds. > > Have you tried replacing the character with space > > Regards > Akshat John Gillen Wrote: > Hello, > > I am using low level file functions (FOPEN(), FEOF(), FREAD(), FWRITE() and FCLOSE() to parse a text file. As part of this parsing, I am using three commands to replace characters in the incoming file: mstring = <incoming string>; mpos = AT(<where character to replace is found in the incoming string>);  mstring = STUFF(mstring,mpos,1,"") to do the character replacement. > > If I run these three steps in the Command window, it works as expected. > > If I run these three steps in a program, instead of NULL, I get a comma (,). > > I tried "",'', and NULL CHR(0) all with the same result - a comma. > > dBASE 8/Windows 10 64bit > > Any ideas/suggestions are appreciated. > > John Hello All and thanks for the feedback, The text file I am processing is acutally an html file from the State of California's website. I don't know the file's encoding format, but a hex view identified the  as CHR(194) in the first example below. I could open the html file and save it as ANSI, but I was hoping to avoid that step if possible, as there are hundreds of these files. So, I opted to use the low level commands to see if I could clean up the wayward characters. I have used STUFF() in many other programs, but this is the first time I have used it in processing an html file. Here's the code for the test file. (TestOut.log is just for troubleshooting) I normally use an .h file, but this was a quick proof of concept test. In this version, I was testing CHR(00), but I have tried "", '' and CHR(00): mchaptest = FOPEN("Test.html","R") mtestout  = FCREATE("TestOut.txt","W") mchaplog  = FCREATE("TestOut.log","W") DO WHILE .NOT. FEOF(mchaptest)   mstring = FGETS(mchaptest)   moutstr = "Current string: " + mstring   FWRITE(mchaplog,moutstr)   FWRITE(mchaplog,CHR(10)+CHR(13))   DO WHILE CHR(194) $ mstring     moutstr = "Testing for CHR(194)"     FWRITE(mchaplog,moutstr)     FWRITE(mchaplog,CHR(10)+CHR(13))     mpos = AT(CHR(194), mstring)     mstring = STUFF(mstring,mpos,1,CHR(00))   ENDDO   DO WHILE CHR(195) $ mstring     moutstr = "Testing for CHR(195)"     FWRITE(mchaplog,moutstr)     FWRITE(mchaplog,CHR(10)+CHR(13))     mpos = AT(CHR(195), mstring)     mstring = STUFF(mstring,mpos,1,CHR(00))   ENDDO   * write the results   FWRITE(mtestout,mstring)   FWRITE(mtestout,CHR(10)+CHR(13)) ENDDO * close Chapters file FCLOSE(mchaptest) FCLOSE(mtestout) Here are sample lines subject to STUFF() and the output: </span> <span style="font-size: 13pt">February 13, 2020. This produces: </span> ‚  <span style="font-size: 13pt">February ‚  13, ‚  2020. submitting to the voter’s county elections official This produces: submitting to the voter ¢â‚¬â„¢s county elections official 2119.5.</h6> (a) From the 14th day This produces: 2119.5.</h6> ‚  (a) ‚  From the 14th day (2) The voter’s former residence This produces: The voter ¢â‚¬â„¢s former residence Thanks again. John