Fixed length ASCII is a much used type of exchange file that is used and recognized by many database programs.

File layout

There is no naming convention for this type of file, but it is a text file. All fields in a record are placed on one line, and each field has the maximum length reserved for that field. If that space is greater than the information in the field, the remaining space will be filled with blank spaces. The fields are indicated by the column position within the file. The field sequence is always the same. Repeated fields do not occur. Before importing, Adlib has to know the length of each field.

Example of a tag pair definition:

1 10

T1

11 5

T2

35 15

T6

The first number in the source "tag" is the column position in the fixed length record, the second indicates the length of the field. Fields may therefore be skipped, by not providing a tag pair for a source column position.

Conversion

With Designer, these files can only be imported, not exported; export is not possible because this file format is not suitable for repeated fields.