Document to text
Document to text ( fileName {; charSet {; breakMode}} ) -> Function result
| Parameter | Type | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| fileName | Text | → | Document name or Pathname to document |
| charSet | Text, Integer | → | Name or Number of character set |
| breakMode | Integer | → | Processing mode for line breaks |
| Function result | Text | ← | Text from the document |
Description
The Document to text command lets you retrieve the contents of a file directly on disk in a 4D text variable or text field.
In fileName, pass the name or pathname of the file to be read. The file must exist on the disk, otherwise an error is generated. You can pass:
- just the file name, for example "myFile.txt": in this case, the file must be located next to the structure file of the application.
- a pathname relative to the structure file of the application, for example "\\docs\\myFile.txt" under Windows or "/docs/myFile.txt" under macOS.
- an absolute pathname, for example "c:\\app\\docs\\myFile.txt" under Windows or "MacHD/docs/myFile.txt" under macOS.
In charSet, you pass the character set to be used for reading the contents. You can pass a string containing the standard set name (for example “ISO-8859-1” or “UTF-8”) or its MIBEnum ID (longint). For more information about the list of character sets supported by 4D, refer to the description of the CONVERT FROM TEXT command.
If the document contains a Byte Order Mark (BOM), 4D uses the character set that it has set instead of the one specified in charSet (this parameter is then ignored).
If the document does not contain a BOM and if the charSet parameter is omitted, by default 4D uses the following character sets:
- under Windows: ANSI
- under OS X: MacRoman
In breakMode, you can pass a longint indicating the processing to apply to end-of-line characters in the document. You can pass one of the following constants, found in the "System Documents" theme:
| Constant | Type | Value | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document unchanged | Longint | 0 | No processing |
| Document with CR | Longint | 3 | Line breaks are converted to CR (carriage return), the default Classic Mac OS format. |
| Document with CRLF | Longint | 2 | Line breaks are converted to CRLF (carriage return + line feed), the default Windows format. |
| Document with LF | Longint | 4 | Line breaks are converted to LF (line feed), the default Unix and macOS format. |
| Document with native format | Longint | 1 | (Default) Line breaks are converted to the native format of the operating system: LF (line feed) under macOS, CRLF (carriage return + line feed) under Windows |
By default, when you omit the breakMode parameter, line breaks are processed in native mode (1).
Compatibility Note: compatibility options are available for EOL and BOM management. See Compatibility page.
Note: This command does not modify the OK variable. In case of failure, an error is generated that you can intercept using a method installed by the ON ERR CALL command.
Example
Given the following text document (fields are separated by tabs):
id name price vat3 4D Tags 99 19.6
When you execute this code:
$Text:=Document to text("products.txt")
... you get:
// $Text = "id\tname\tprice\tvat\r\n3\t4D Tags\t99 \t19.6"
// \t = tab
// \r = CR
See also
System Documents
TEXT TO DOCUMENT