I am working on exporting data out of a custom-created FileMaker 5.5 database to import into eBase. One of the fields is a series of check boxes for a value list called "Groups." When I export data into .CSV, all of the data from that field is placed into a single field, separated by "boxes." I originally assumed that these "boxes" were line breaks. But, I do not believe that they are now. My problem is that I cannot do much of anything with the data while it is all concentrated into one field. And, since I cannot figure out what the data separator character is, I'm really quite stuck. I've attached a sample of the data. If anyone can provide assistance, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

Sample.zip

The box is a "vertical tab", ASCII 11, which FileMaker must use in order to not screw up the .csv, because 1 record = 1 line; can't handle extra line endings.

One way to do it is to create a FileMaker calculation, using Substitute() to convert those to a comma, then export the calculation field instead. The quotes in the CSV should allow you to have commas in a text field.

But one wonders why, since eBase is FileMaker, you don't just import as FileMaker? Other than the fact that eBase is kind of convoluted. Of course, much of that is to flexibly handle security/viewing with user-configurable fields. I haven't looked at their 7 version; hopefully it's been streamlined.

Thanks for your help. However, I don't understand how to reference a vertical tab in that function. Is it Alt 0011? I've tried that, but nothing appears in the expression. Thanks.

Linton

I'm sorry. It's just a return, "