How to know the format of a text file

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How to know the format of a text file

tinnusqlserver

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May 5, 2011 at 2:10 pm

#73799

Hi folks.... needed your suggestions.....

I had created a text file named "forward.txt" in windows operating system. How can i know whether my text file "forward.txt" is a

ASCII-CRLF

ASCII-LF

EBCDIC.

I want to know my text file format. Is it in ASCII-CRLF format or in ASCII-LF format or in EBCDIC format??

Thanks!!

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Ian_McCann SSCertifiable Points: 5158 More actions · Answer 1

Ian_McCann

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Points: 5158

May 6, 2011 at 1:18 am

#1320811

There are some suggestions in Wikipedia on identifying the EOL character

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline

hope this gives you a starting place.

Ian

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 2

If you created it, you presumably know how you created it. If you created it on Wndows with Notepad, for example, it will use ASCII-CRLF (ANSI) unless you told the system to use a unicode format for it. If you created it with something that gives you full control over the output, it will be whatever format you generated. And so on.

Tom

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1000539 More actions · Answer 3

tinnusqlserver (5/5/2011)

Hi folks.... needed your suggestions.....

I had created a text file named "forward.txt" in windows operating system. How can i know whether my text file "forward.txt" is a

ASCII-CRLF

ASCII-LF

EBCDIC.

I want to know my text file format. Is it in ASCII-CRLF format or in ASCII-LF format or in EBCDIC format??

Thanks!!

There's really only one way to know for sure... open it up with a hex editor and look.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
"Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

Nadrek SSC-Insane Points: 20039 More actions · Answer 4

Jeff Moden (9/4/2011)

There's really only one way to know for sure... open it up with a hex editor and look.

Agreed. See also the Unicode Byte Order Mark FAQ for more details on Unicode and the characters which _may_ exist at the beginning indicating big-endian vs little-endian, but be aware that Microsoft uses UCS-2 instead of a modern (July 1996 or later) Unicode variant.