How to find end of line or start of new line in progress openedge 4gl?

Question

I have a .csv file and I need to manipulate the data based on start or end of a line . How can I find starting point of each line ?

Answer 1

It's easiest when you import the file line by line already.

DEFINE VARIABLE cLine AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.

INPUT FROM yourfile.csv .

REPEAT:
    IMPORT UNFORMATTED cLine .

    // cLine contains exactly a single line
END.

If the data is more consistent you can even use IMPORT with a DELIMITER insteam of UNFORMATTED.

Answer 2

If it is really a CSV then you can process it very efficiently:

define variable inputItemList as character no-undo extent 128.
define variable i as integer no-undo.

input from value( "yourfile.csv" ).
itemLoop: repeat:
  inputItemList = ?.
  import delimiter "," inputItemList.
  do i = 1 to 128:
    if inputItemList[i] = ? then
      next itemLoop.
     else
      do:
        /* do something useful with this item... */
      end.
  end.
end.
input close.

"128" is an arbitrary number of items -- pick something different if you know your data better than I do.

If the data is not all character fields and if it is consistent then you can also use properly typed fields in the IMPORT statement.