how to replace one character by another with PCL 1

[martincab]

Is there any PCL command to replace one character by another?

I'm migrating tons of oracle ascii reports from esc/p to PCL. Thanks to the great stuff i found here, i didn't need to change any line of oracle code. I've done the job by changing the printer definition file.

The last remaining thing i need to do is to replace the "=" character by the "_" to improve the look of the reports.

Thanks for any idea.


Martin

 

[jlasman]

I don't know of a PCL command to arbitrarily change one character to another, but you could put your text file through a filter to make the change before printing.

If you are on UNIX, the 'tr' command would do nicely, otherwise a 10 line C-program would do it.



Jim Asman
jlasman@telus.net

 

[Buff1]

If the change in character refers to underlining.
For example using the equal = for double underlining and
dash - for single underlining and you want to underline
the text, using the underline character _ may not give you
the results you want. Here are a couple of suggestrions.

If using a fixed font at 10,12,16.66 cpi you should be
able to use chr$(27);"(10U" then use the line-draw characters chr$(205) and chr$(196) to replace = and - respectively.

If you want the underline on instead you will need to
use the underline on/off statement before and after the text. and eliminate the = or - characters.

Example
chr$(27);"&d0D";"This text is underlines";chr$(27);"&d@"

(use 0D for fixed underlining [leading trailing apaces underlined] or 1D for floating underline.)

 

[martincab]

Thanks for the useful tips.

The tr command has done the job very well and easily.


Martin Cabrera
Colombia South America.