Subject Re: STUFF() returns incorrect character From John Gillen <johngillen@cox.net> Date Thu, 07 Jan 2021 23:26:07 -0500 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started John Gillen Wrote: > 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 > > 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 > Thanks to all for the suggestions and information!