Re: retrieving information from a set of files

How do you know where the account number is in a given file? If you have a header row, then the solution is easy, so I assume you don't. If that's the case, you will have to determine some way to tell where the account number is in a given file. For example, it sounds like your fields are fixed length. Are you guaranteed that the account number field will be the only field that is 9 characters long?

If you have to manually inspect each file to find the account number field, then I am not sure how you would expect to solve the problem progamatically.

Comment on Re: retrieving information from a set of files

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Re^2: retrieving information from a set of files by Anonymous Monk on Oct 20, 2006 at 21:43 UTC
The account number is a fixed 9 digits that is always the first 9 digits in 7 of the files. For the remaining files also it is always in a fixed location on each line of the file.	[reply]
Re^3: retrieving information from a set of files by Anonymous Monk on Oct 20, 2006 at 21:55 UTC
I forgot to note 1 additional comment: the number of fields may vary according to the file. Although my sample data illustrates only 3 columns, this is not true for the files I have.	[reply]
Re^2: retrieving information from a set of files by Anonymous Monk on Oct 20, 2006 at 21:52 UTC
I've created some sample data to illustrate what i'm speaking of. I hope this helps? 1 of 3 exception files look like this: 234abc\|00011\|123456789 224abc\|01011\|122456789 244abc\|10011\|123356789 254abc\|11011\|123446789 Other 7 files are in this format: 123456789\|234abc\|00011 123456789\|234abc\|00011 123456789\|234abc\|00011 122456789\|224abc\|01011 123356789\|244abc\|10011 123356789\|244abc\|10011 123446789\|254abc\|11011 accts.txt 123456789 122456789 123356789 123446789	[reply]