Cognos Impromptu - double quote output

[galaxy0815]

Hello,

I tried in several ways to create a report field that should just show "" (double quotes) in the final csv/xls output but I was never able to get this working.

Either nothing (blank) was shown in the output or I had """"" or """""""" in the output.

Does anybody know what I need to enter in the .imr file of the report for one field so that for this field is just "" shown in the output?

Thanks in advance!

 

[drlex]

That's most odd - all versions of Impromptu that I have used (6 onwards) have offered the option to put double quotes around the output (File > Save As; change type to Delimited ASCII & click on Options button to put check in Quote Strings box).

If one defines a calculated text field as being a concatenation of double-quotes, text field and double-quotes, then saved as quoted csv, non-null contents will show as """<field>""" in notepad/text editor but rendered as "<field>" in Excel. Nulls will be "" in the .csv and blank in Excel.





soi là, soi carré

 

[galaxy0815]

The thing is that I need to re-create a specific file format where the output is saved in ascii / csv and it is required that not all columns are surrounded by "" signs. There should be just one column (a blank column) that should be sourrounded by those signs, but I do not get this working.

So in the final file, when I check it in notepad, there should be for this column just "" and nothing else

So it really seems as far as I can see that there is no solution for this "easy" task.

 

[drlex]

Ah, well now you explain what the true problem is - the fact that you want some columns with double quotes and some without!
In which case, make sure that you add double-quotes to each field that requires it, a comma to the end of each text field output (other than the last) or as an extra field after numeric ones and then save the report as .txt


soi là, soi carré

 

[galaxy0815]

Hi,

Thanks for your help on this! I was able to change a bit on the project scope and so I can create the report without those double quote columns.