I’m now at the point in my Pan X migration that I need to export current data from Pan 6 databases and import them to the new Pan X. How to prepare the old file with cr() vs lf() is confusing me, so wondering if someone could tell me what to do to process the file before exporting with exportline()+¶. Or maybe it needs to be done in the resulting text file before importing?
Some of the fields, say a Note field, might have 3 lines of text, like an address. When I export and import, each of those lines becomes a new record and, of course, they should have been all part of one record in the Note field. This problem pops up randomly in different fields in different records and there are thousands or even 100k+ records in some of the files, so doing anything by hand won’t work.
You shouldn’t have to do anything. The exportline() function will convert any carriage returns in the data into vertical tabs (at least it does this in Panorama X, I assume that Panorama 6 also did this but I don’t have a machine handy that will run Panorama 6). Panorama X will convert the vertical tabs back into carriage returns when you import.
In any case, I would suggest a different method for transferring the data. Instead of exporting it as a text file, I would suggest bringing the Panorama 6 database directly into a new Panorama X database. Then you can transfer it to another Panorama X database directly. There’s no need to mess with a text file.
I just tried this, and exportline() does convert carriage returns to vertical tabs in Panorama X, but not in Panorama 6. In Panorama 6, you would have to use crtovtab(exportline()).
Dave’s method works for a text export, solving the cr() problem. Jim’s solution works without needing that. Both methods have several steps that are partly manual so I will test both and see which is easier and can be done more fully with a procedure on the export side and then the import side from the database receiving the new information. I expect to have to do this several times during my beta testing phase.