Establishes the format for data input.

Syntax

SET INPUT FORMAT NORMAL|COMMADELIMITED

Comments

The INPUT FORMAT option is NORMAL by default.

Normally, the ADD and CHANGE commands look for input whose format is a simple data stream, separated by delimiter characters. SET INPUT FORMAT enables these commands to read data in “comma delimited” format from unstructured application documents.

When using the comma-delimited format, data base fields are separated from one another by the delimiter character. This is normally a comma, but it can be changed using the SET DELIMITER command. Character-type fields have trailing blanks removed and are enclosed by the text delimiter. This is normally double quotation marks, but can be changed using the SET TEXTDELIMITER command. Numeric fields have leading blanks removed.

Fields that match the current NULLVALUE string (without text delimiters) are evaluated as $Null. Fields comprising of two text delimiters are evaluated as $Null or zero, depending on the field being assigned.

Example

set save
set input format commadelimited
set nullvalue “$null”
add Customers from UnstructuredDoc
set restore

See Also

ADD

SET DELIMITER

SET NULLVALUE

SET OUTPUT FORMAT

SET TEXTDELIMITER