Fair enough. Let me describe a little more.

I have a fixed-length file. The length of each record should not change. I have a field definition table within Oracle that I can configure if input or output requirements change.

The data within each field is alphanumeric. My post showed data that was numeric for one field, then alpha the next. That was confusing. Sorry. The fields can consist of any combination of letters, numbers or spaces (since everything will be left-padded).

Since I have the field definitions, I know that characters 1-10 will be field 1 in the input, and that it has to map to field 4 in the output (same length). Field 2 in the input (let's say 6 characters) has to map to field 1 in the output. Field 3 in the input will actually have to switch values. It may be 10 characters long in input, but I have to match this value against a list of values (the key of a hash table) and have it be 4 characters in the output (the value of the same hash table).

In reply to Re^2: Seeking an Enlightened Path (Parsing, Translating, Translocating) by nanotasher
in thread Seeking an Enlightened Path (Parsing, Translating, Translocating) by nanotasher

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