The problem I'm dealing with seemed simple at first - but now I'm stumped. I need to output data from FMP 4 to an ASCII file, and MUST maintain a specific space delimited format. The output is being passed to a UNIX based program that requires all information (12 fields) to be in a column specific location.

The output must not contain any 'extra' characters such as " or tabs etc. Any ideas greatly appreciated!

Make a calc field that formats the entire record in the format required. For example, if field `f1' must fit in 20 columns and field `f2' must fit in 35 columns, then your calc field might look like this:

code:

---

export(calc,text) =

Left((f1 & " "),20) &

Left((f2 & " "),35)

---

Export just this field in Tab-delimited format. Tab-delimited doesn't add quotes, and with only 1 field, it won't add tabs either.

[This message has been edited by Thom (edited May 24, 2000).]