rich@aoa.UUCP (Rich Snow) (04/11/91)
I have been given a pile of disks with ASCII files in SDF format.
(That is they're .SDF files)
My eventual goal is to transport this data into a Mac spreadsheet.
I have no problem with the hardware end of this, but can anyone tell
me, what the "%$&^*&" is SDF format? Is there any translator to
another native PCish format? (Tab, DBF, Comma, etc)
The fields in each record seem to be delimited with white space, but
not tabs. They are seperated with spaces. The fields are not of a
common length. It looks like the only way to extract it is to trash
the first 3 chars, and grab everything up to the first " ",
then search for a "/" since the end of the second field
and the beginning of the third are seperated by a "/" and then to index
backwards two space chars. That would put me at the beginning of the
second field...
Very messy.
Seen this before?
-Rich
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* aoa!rich@bbn.comw8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) (04/13/91)
rich@aoa.UUCP (Rich Snow) writes: >I have been given a pile of disks with ASCII files in SDF format. >(That is they're .SDF files) >My eventual goal is to transport this data into a Mac spreadsheet. >I have no problem with the hardware end of this, but can anyone tell >me, what the "%$&^*&" is SDF format? Is there any translator to >another native PCish format? (Tab, DBF, Comma, etc) A Source Data File (SDF) is simply a text file with data beginning at fixed column positions. You can write a simple BASIC program to extract the fields and ignore the spaces between fields if you wish. Another option is to use Button Software's PC-File+ or PC-File-dB, available from SIMTEL20, to import the file in SDF format and then export it in whatever format you like. Button's PC-File+ database program is great. I use it to catalog the SIMTEL20 archives. Directory PD1:<MSDOS.DATABASE> Filename Type Length Date Description ============================================== PCFPL3-1.ARC B 259047 890914 PC-File+ v3.0 Buttonware database pgm - 1of3 PCFPL3-2.ARC B 280411 890914 PC-File+ v3.0 Buttonware database pgm - 2of3 PCFPL3-3.ARC B 268631 890914 PC-File+ v3.0 Buttonware database pgm - 3of3 Directory PD1:<MSDOS.DBASE> Filename Type Length Date Description ============================================== PCF501A.ZIP B 305766 910122 Buttonware's PC-File v5.01 database pgm, 1of3 PCF501B.ZIP B 293800 910122 Buttonware's PC-File v5.01 database pgm, 2of3 PCF501C.ZIP B 256071 910122 Buttonware's PC-File v5.01 database pgm, 3of3 These files are also available from Detroit Download Central. Keith -- Keith Petersen Maintainer of SIMTEL20's MSDOS, MISC & CP/M archives [IP address 26.2.0.74] Co-SysOp, Detroit Download Central 313-885-3956 (212/V22bis/HST/V32/V42bis) Internet: w8sdz@vela.acs.oakland.edu, w8sdz@eddie.mit.edu, w8sdz@brl.mil Uucp: uunet!umich!vela!w8sdz BITNET: w8sdz@OAKLAND