PPWIZARD is a free preprocessor for HTML, REXX, Visual Basic or any text files.

#import - WRAP

This is a specialised #import facility.

WRAP DEFINITIONS/OPTIONS

These definitions are specific to the "WRAP" import mode. If you can't understand how they work then I suggest you try using /debug or #debug to watch what variables the import uses etc.

• DefineName_DROP_BLANK_LINES
  You can specify whether or not blank lines (or lines where all fields are blank) are significant. The default is 'Y' to drop blank lines, specify 'N' to prevent this.

• DefineName_TAB_CHAR
  Normally tabs are ignored by the import process. This variable allows you to replace them with something else.

• DefineName_ASIS_TAGGING
  This option can be used to adjust the conversion of what may be problem characters (such as '<' in HTML). By default importing does not handle/convert international characters such as umlauts to html symbols but there is nothing preventing you from doing so.

  This definition lists zero, one or more names as used on previous "#AsIs SETUP" commands (seperated by whitespace). Clear this definition to prevent all ASIS conversions.

  Note that you will probably need to override this value (maybe others as well) if you wished to expand any macros that the imported data might contain (by default this is not done).

• DefineName_RECORD_FILTER
  This option switches between 2 alternative ways of handling each line of data as follows:

  1. Option Not used
     The macro you identify with the "DefineName" parameter is passed each line in turn (line passed as the macro parameter "Line").

     The line is passed as a rexx statement which when executed will restore the line.

     Your macro can do anything it likes as it determines what if anything get generated.

  2. Option used
     The rexx code that you specify is called for each line.

     The following rexx variables are relevant:

     • Remove
       If this variable is set to any non blank value then the line will be dropped, the variables value is shown when debugging so it is recommended that the value be the reason for dropping the record.

       If the contents starts with 'EOF:' then the current record and ALL following are dropped.

     • WrapLineNumber
       This is the line number of the current line. Do not modify this variable.

     • WrapLine
       This is the line as read from the file. You would normally modify this variable.

Example of WRAP Import

Assume "PEOPLE.TXT" contains people data of the following form (each record spans 3 lines with blank lines being ignored and little validation of data):

   Harry
   18
   male


   Lisa
   20
   female

Then we could create a simple HTML table as follows:

   ;--- Define some macros to handle the imported data ----------------------
   #define InitMultiLineFieldImport             \
           #RexxVar RxFieldCount = 0
   #define TermMultiLineFieldImport                                                     \
           #if [RxFieldCount <> 0]                                                      \
               #error "Incorrectly specified record, have <??RxFieldCount> of 3 fields" \
           #endif
   #define EachLine                                                                     \
           ;--- "read" the line (no blank lines) -------                                \
           #evaluate+ ''  ^ThisLine = strip({$Line})^                                   \
                                                                                        \
           ;--- Save information -----------------------                                \
           #RexxVar RxFieldCount + 1                                                    \
           #RexxVar RxField_<??RxFieldCount> = ThisLine                                 \
                                                                                        \
           ;--- If end of record then output it --------                                \
           #if [RxFieldCount = 3]                                                       \
               <TR><TD><??RxField_1> is <??RxField_3> and <??RxField_2> years old       \
               #RexxVar RxFieldCount = 0                                                \
           #endif


   ;--- Start the table -----------------------------------------------------
   <$InitMultiLineFieldImport>
   <BR>
   <CENTER>
   <TABLE COLS=3 BORDER=1>

   ;--- Import the data (leaving default at dropping blank lines) -----------
   #import "PEOPLE.TXT" WRAP EachLine

   ;--- End The table -------------------------------------------------------
   </TABLE>
   </CENTER>
   <$TermMultiLineFieldImport>

PPWIZARD Manual

Thursday January 17 2002 at 6:27pm