Tabbed Output

AQL allows another form of output referred to as tab delimited output for use when transferring data from D3 to PC applications. Optionally, this can be selected by modifying the AQL command that is used in the AQL sentence. This is done by adding an additional mode ID (53) to the third value of attribute 2 of the master dictionary definition of the AQL command that is being used. AQL produces output delimited by tabs and each line of data is terminated with a CR for transfers to applications running on PCs.

I created 2 new verbs SORTT and LISTT which are copies of the SORT & LIST verbs with the change to attrib 2 as noted above. It works just fine and produces a TSV file. There is a caveat though, it does not produce a header row. I have asked Rocket for a solution but none was forthcoming. I began writing a utility program to insert a header row but alas, sadly, I never managed to get it going sufficiently to make it a proper working utility. It only works for VERY simple AQL statements.

For D3 reports generated programmatically by the application, I have a subroutine that generates CSV records from a dynamic array. It is a generic CSV utility sub that generates CSV records by default, but you can specify what field delimiter and value delimiter to use if the standard comma and quote characters are not suitable. I append the generated CSV records into a dynamic array and send it to the network using a utility program/sub that creates a Q-Pointer to the network Share be used for the file transfers (Z:\\Temp in our case). Excel can then automatically import the CSV file and create a worksheet from it.

I must admit, I rarely use the SORTT or LISTT verbs, preferring to write report programs (which give me more freedom in selection, formatting and presentation), then generating CSV records from the report lines and finally exporting the generated item to the network.

I'm happy to share my code with you if you like to get an idea of the process or to use it in your business if needed. It's not glorious code, just gets the job done in the short space of time available to me.