Data Conversion Dilemma!

[jTerryC]

I’m looking for someone to help do a conversion of data generated by a Turbo Pascal application into a format that could be imported into MS SQL. Each record of the data is stored in an individual file! Some data fields are in plain ASCII and some in binary. It almost appears as if an object was saved to disk. I’m hoping that it was some Pascal standard that could be converted by someone with Turbo Pascal experience.

The application is an order entry system with customer, orders, inventory and purchase order modules. For performance, each month’s data is backed up and purged from the working directories.

If you have had experience with this type of data, or know someone who has, please contact me. I will be happy to send you sample data and would like a quote for an application to convert the data.

Regards,

Terry Carroll
Software For The PC, Inc.

 

[dkdude]

Terry,

Assuming that you have access to the source code ...

I would convert the data to CSV (comma seperated volume). However, get confirmation that MS SQL can import CSV files before you go on!!

The comma seperating the fields can be:

comma
semicolon
tab

Let's assume you want to use semicolon as field seperator, the file you output to (the CSV) will look like this:

field1a;field2a;field3a;
field1b;field2b;field3b;

The above would be a file of two records three fields long. Each record is terminated with a carriage return and a linefeed...

The files that look like binary is most likely a typed files. Having access to the source code you'll be able to read the typed files and convert them into CSVs.

Good Luck §;O)


Jakob

 

[jTerryC]

Jakob,
My client just found the source code. It was on an old 5 1/4" disk and it took me a couple of days to dust off a machine so I could read it.

The delimited ASCII files you describe would work just fine.

Are you interested in giving this a try? I can email the code and some of the data for you to look over.

Terry

 

[dkdude]

Terry,

I'm very busy now (two jobs at the moment), but if you post the type definition from the source I'll try to have a look at it. I'm guessing that the binary-like files are the ones causing the most problems for you, right?

-how much Pascal do you know? Just want to make sure we're on the same page §;O)


Jakob