Ascii char specifically nul

[RPCia]

Hello,

I am trying to match a dat file that one of our main suppliers is requiring us to export

The last line in this img is what I have now from filemaker the rest are what I am trying to mimic, I uploaded an screenshot here

http://db.tt/Mq4Fc9f

This is my field definition for every record:

Let( [

m = Month( date );

m = If( Length( m ) = 1; "0"; "" ) & m;

d = Day( date );

d =  If( Length( d ) = 1; "0"; "" ) & d;

y =  Year( date );

y =  If( Length( y ) = 4; Right( y; 2 ); y);

rid = "*" & rollID & "*";

r = rollID & space( 20 - Length( rollID ) );

po = m & d & y & space( 20 - Length( m & d & y ) );

dte = If( Length( date ) < 10; "0" & date; date ) & space( 10 - Length( date ) )

];

"123456" & space( 6 ) & //scanner serial Number

"111" & space( 1 ) & //site code

"PHY" & " "  & //Transaction code

dte & "  " & //date of scan

space( 12 ) & " " & //delivery number

po & " " & //po number

space( 20 ) & " " & //physical ID

space( 18 ) & " " & //material Number

r //roll id & ""

)

/*

Field   					Start (1 based) Length Notes

Scanner Serial Number 1 12

Site Code                            	14 3

Transaction Code            	18 3

Transaction Date            	22 10

Delivery Number            	34 12

Po Number            	47 20

Physical Id            	68 20

Material                            	89 18

Product Id          	108 20

*/

ok now I have tried replacing the spaces in between each field with char(0) to get the nul character that does not work.

I have tried placing char( 12 ) at the end after the roll id that did not work it simply displays as shown above never showing the appropriate characters. I have confirmed by copying his FF into the data viewr and using the code function it does return 12 and the nul returns 0

I have tried exporting as tab and mer files with encoding set to ansi, aschii, utf-8, utf-16

Why can I not export char(0) as nul and char(12) as FF, can it be done? Before I spend more time on this I was hoping someone would have an answer or flat out tell me it can not be done.

Thanks

[comment]

it may be possible, but not the way you are going at it. Filemaker's Char ( 0 ) returns an empty string. If you want the NULL character, you''ll need to copy it elsewhere and paste it into a global field. Char ( 12 ) should work fine for producing the FORM FEED character.

[RPCia]

Any suggestions on which export options to use, because i tried pasting the null character into the field definition and it did not work either.

I also tried using the char (12) and exporting but it does not come through as the FF character.

I have not tried setting it into a global field would Filemaker see this differently then simply pasting the null character into the field definition box directly?

Thanks for your help

[comment]

which export options to use,

I think you want to export as tab-delimited, exporting only the one calc field.

i tried pasting the null character into the field definition

I wouldn't try that, as it may easily crash Filemaker.

[exizldelfuego]

We just came across the null issue in a client’s system. In our case, we want to strip out any null characters because it’s screwing up some exported files used in other apps. We created a new table called null with one field called null and one record. The null field, as you might guess, stores the pasted in null value. Then we have a script which runs immediately on login which hops over to the null layout and stores the null value in a $$null global variable so it can be used anywhere, then takes the user back to the proper initial layout.

Substitute ( table::field ; $$null ; "" ) works like a charm!