ARexx (80/81)

From:Neil Bothwick
Date:28 Jun 2001 at 09:13:42
Subject:Re: how do batch process 350 html files?

Terry Chadban said,

> Hello Neil,

>> Does HTTX give the same column layout each time? If so, you can read
>> each line of the file output by HTTX and use PARSE to split it into
>> its component parts.
>>
>> e.g. if each line is laid out like
>>
>> Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4
>>

> Nah, that would be too easy! :-)

> The output is in a form similar to this:

> NAME1
> Personal details, each separated by a couple of spaces
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> NAME2
> Personal details
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> DATE FIELD1 FIELD2 FIELD3 FIELD4 FIELD5 FIELD6 COMMENTS
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> NAME3

> etc. The personal details info is not in a columnal format, which
> doesn't help, and the comments field can vary greatly in length.

The length of the comments field is unimportant, because it's the last
field. Are there always at least a couple of spaces between columns, and
never double spaces within any data item? If so you could use

parse var line item1 ' ' item2 ' ' etc.

Alternatively, if there are column headers for each table, you could
read the header line to work out to the column layout.

> At
> the moment I am undecided as to try to import the data into a database
> program - I have SBase and a couple of registered shareware progs,
> into TurboCalc - I have v3.5 - or to bite the bullet and try to write
> an ARexx prog from scratch.

You'd still need a script to massage the data before you could import
it.

Cheers

Neil



Neil Bothwick - New Media Editor, Amiga Active Magazine

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