I have a text file, with a variable number of lines per “record”, and the delimiter between records is when a value changes.
I need to evaluate each line and if there is a value at specific location on the line, that indicates a new record.
I admit I’ve never been quite clear on the difference between the “Page Delimiter” and the “Boundaries”.
In any case, if there are examples available, where could I find them?
In the screen capture below, the highlighted values represent new records.
I think I got it… Page Delimiter is one line. Record Boundary is when the text between 67 and 73 is not empty.
Think of it this way: in TEXT and PDF mode, a single record may contain one or more pages of data. In PDF mode, you don’t need to specify delimiters because the format already includes natural delimiters (i.e. the pages are already clearly identified as such).
But in TEXT mode, since there often are no natural delimiters, you need to specify what they are inorder for the DataMapper to understand what constitutes a “page”. Those delimiters are usually set via a fixed number of lines and/or the presence of a Form Feed character in the stream.
That’s why in TEXT mode, you need to specify both the page delimiters, and then the record boundaries, based on those delimiters.
Hope that helps clarify your understanding.
I think of the Page Delimiter as “data pages” or how to “chunk” or “step through” the data.
And the Boundaries is how to organize those chunks into a “Record”.
