.TH fixtotable "" "" "/rdb Command"
.PC "Converts fixed length format to /rdb table format"
\fBfixtotable \fIcolumn\fB\|[=\|\fIn1\fB,\fIn2\fB] ... < \fIfixtdb\fR
.PP
.II "table^convert format"
.II "table^fixed length"
.II "convert table format"
The command
.B fixtotable
converts a data base from fixed-length format to
variable length \fB/rdb\fR format.
It does so
by selecting \fIn2\fR bytes of data from table \fIfixtdb\fR,
beginning at the \fIn1\fR position for each \fIcolumn\fR specified.
It inserts tabs between columns and calls the
.B /rdb
command
.B compress
to remove leading and trailing blanks.
It generates
header records from the column names.
Column names that do not specify start position (\fIn1\fR) and
field width (\fIn2\fR) are considered empty columns, and appear
as such in the output.
Blank records are removed.
.SH Example
For example, let's look at a file named \fBjournal\fR:
.DM
1       10        20        30
----+----|----+----|----+----|
820102101     25000       
820102211.1          25000
820103150.1   10000       
820103101             5000
820103211.2           5000
820104130     30000       
.DE
.PP
The first six bytes are the date field;
the next six bytes, starting at position 7 are the account number field;
the next seven bytes, starting at position 13 are the credit field;
and the last seven bytes, starting at position 20 are the debit field.
.PP
The following command yanks
the account number and the credit and debit fields from
.BR journal ,
makes a new table with a new field for the description:
.DM
fixtotable Account=7,6 Debit=13,7 Credit=20,7 Description < journal
.DE
.PP
This produces the following table:
.DM
Account Debit   Credit  Description
------- -----   ------  -----------
101     25000           
211.1           25000   
150.1   10000           
101     5000            
211.2           5000    
130     30000           
.DE
.SH "See Also"
.B
compress,
tabletofix
.R
.SO fixtotable