Re: Unload problem.

Bashar Abouseido writes: -> ->I am wondering if any of you can help me. At our facility we are using ->the Informix-OnLine family of products, with the Informix-SQL front end. ->We are using Informix-OnLine 5.0, and Informix-SQL 4.10.UD2. -> ->Recently we have encountered a number of problems regarding the use of ->variable-lenght character fields (VARCHARs). Most of these problems ->involve NULLs. -> ->The first problem we encountered was with ACE reports: If you print ->a varchar whose value is null, the entire line is truncated at that point. ->That is, if you execute: -> -> print col 1, field1 clipped, -> col 40, field2 clipped, -> col 70, field3 clipped, -> col 90, total using "#,##&" -> ->... and field2 is a varchar whose value is NULL, then only field1 prints. ->The rest of the output is "eaten" by ace. -> ->To work around this, we have disallowed NULL values in VARCHARs; when we <bunch of descriptive stuff deleted> -> ->- T.J. Girsch ( t.girsch@genie.com ) -> Commercial Communications, Inc. -> (414) 798-1999 T.J., I would seriously recommend modifying your ace report rather than your data. Give the following a try: if field1 is not null then print col 1, field1 clipped; if field2 is not null then print col 40, field2 clipped; if field3 is not null then print col 70, field3 clipped; if total is not null then print col 90, total using "#,##&" The semi-colons will prevent each print statement from doing a line feed. My guess is that this will solve your problem. Regards, - Cathy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cathy Kipp e-mail: ckipp@vth1.vth.colostate.edu Phone: (303) 491-1294 Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Fax: (303) 491-1205 Coming in September, from Prentice Hall, my new book: Programming INFORMIX SQL/4GL: A Step-by-Step Approach (ISBN: 0-13-149394-9)