Saving Excel file with fixed length fields

prida · Apr 25th, 2002, 09:12 PM

My brother imports a file with columns in fixed-length format from his school district's database into Excel without problems. He then makes some edits and MUST resave it as a fixed-length file in order to return it to the district. Would saving the file as formatted text (space delimited) (*.prn) do the trick? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Tom Schreiner · Apr 25th, 2002, 10:42 PM

Hi
When you say fixed length, are you talking about fixed strings?
Tom

prida · Apr 26th, 2002, 07:44 AM

I suppose... You know when you're importing and exporting from a database, and the database determines the field length either by delimiters (comma, tab, whatever) or by a pre-determined field length? He needs to make sure Excel maintains the established column width as the field length, instead of using some more efficient delimited format.

Thanks!

Tom Schreiner · Apr 26th, 2002, 02:21 PM

Hi
If you'd like,
send me an example of the raw data from the database and I can work with you on that...
TsTom@HotMail.com

prida · Apr 29th, 2002, 07:36 PM

Oh, no, no thank you. We'll try it--just thought someone might have run into this and could save some trial and error.

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Apr 25th, 2002, 09:12 PM	#1
prida New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 8	My brother imports a file with columns in fixed-length format from his school district's database into Excel without problems. He then makes some edits and MUST resave it as a fixed-length file in order to return it to the district. Would saving the file as formatted text (space delimited) (*.prn) do the trick? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Apr 25th, 2002, 10:42 PM	#2
Tom Schreiner Board Regular Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Posts: 6,824	Hi When you say fixed length, are you talking about fixed strings? Tom

Apr 26th, 2002, 07:44 AM	#3
prida New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 8	I suppose... You know when you're importing and exporting from a database, and the database determines the field length either by delimiters (comma, tab, whatever) or by a pre-determined field length? He needs to make sure Excel maintains the established column width as the field length, instead of using some more efficient delimited format. Thanks!

Apr 26th, 2002, 02:21 PM	#4
Tom Schreiner Board Regular Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Posts: 6,824	Hi If you'd like, send me an example of the raw data from the database and I can work with you on that... TsTom@HotMail.com

Apr 29th, 2002, 07:36 PM	#5
prida New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 8	Oh, no, no thank you. We'll try it--just thought someone might have run into this and could save some trial and error.