SSExportToTextFile Function

Applies To

fpSpread control

Description

Saves a sheet to a text file and lets you specify the delimiters.

Syntax

BOOL SSExportToTextFile(HWND hWnd, LPCTSTR pcszFileName, LPCTSTR pcszCellDelim, LPCTSTR pcszColDelim, LPCTSTR pcszRowDelim, long lFlags, LPCTSTR pcszLogFile);

C++

BOOL TSpread::ExportToTextFile(LPCTSTR pcszFileName, LPCTSTR pcszCellDelim, LPCTSTR pcszColDelim, LPCTSTR pcszRowDelim, long lFlags, LPCTSTR pcszLogFile);

Parameters

The following parameters are available:

Parameter	Description
pcszFileName	Path and file name of the text file to create
pcszCellDelim	Cell delimiter For more information about the cell delimiter, see the Remarks section.
pcszColDelim	Column delimiter
pcszRowDelim	Row delimiter If you do not provide a row delimiter, the control uses a carriage return/line feed as the delimiter.
lFlags	Whether to append or over-write the file, whether to export formatted or unformatted data, and whether to export column and row headers You must specify whether to append or create a new file. If you do not specify other options, formatted data will be exported, without column and row header text. Use the (\|) OR operator and combine the following values as indicated:
	Constant	Description
	Use one of the following values:
	SS_EXPORTTEXT_CREATE	To create a new text file
	SS_EXPORTTEXT_APPEND	To append to an existing text file
	Use the following value:
	SS_EXPORTTEXT_UNFORMATTED	To export data as unformatted data
	Use the following value:
	SS_EXPORTTEXT_CHECKBOXFALSE	To write false value as 0
	Use one or both of the following values:
	SS_EXPORTTEXT_COLHEADERS	To export column header text
	SS_EXPORTTEXT_ROWHEADERS	To export row header text
pcszLogFile	Path and file name of log file to create If you do not provide a file name, the export will not create a log file. If you do not want to create a log file, set this parameter to "".

Remarks

This function is applied to the current sheet setting unless you first call the SSSetSheet function to specify the sheet for which you are calling this function.

Call the SSExportToTextFile function to save a sheet to an ANSI text file. If you want to save the sheet to a Unicode text file, call the SSExportToTextFileU function.

Use strings to specify the delimiters to separate your data in the text file. If you do not want to provide a column delimiter, specify "" as the delimiter. If you do not provide a row delimiter, the control uses a carriage return/line feed as the delimiter. You can use more than one character as the delimiter, enabling you to insert field names around data.

If you have specified a column or row delimiter, a cell delimiter is automatically provided. The cell delimiter is provided if one of the following is true:

The data contains a character you have specified as a delimiter.
The data contains a double quote (").

By default, the control provides double quotes (") as the cell delimiter. You can specify another delimiter, if you prefer.

If the data contains the character used as the column or row delimiter, the entire cell data is placed between the cell delimiter character. For example, if the column delimiter is a comma, the data ab,cd becomes "ab,cd". If the data contains the character defined as the cell delimiter, the character in the data is preceded by another cell delimiter; for example, ab,"cd becomes "ab,""cd". Only cells that have data that contains a delimiter character have cell delimiters applied to them.

Use the lFlags parameter to specify whether formatted or unformatted data is saved to the text file. For more information about formatted and unformatted data, see Formatted and Unformatted Data. Also use the lFlags parameter to specify whether to append the data to an existing file, or to create a new file, and to specify whether column and row headers are exported.

By default, text files with custom delimiters created using Spread or the Spread Designer have the extension .TXT. However, you can use any extension.

Tip: You might want to save your sheet as a Spread (.SS8) file in addition to exporting it to text so that you can open the Spread (.SS8) file for future modifications.

The following table summarizes the formats to which you can save data:

To Save To . . .	Use Function
Binary file (proprietary format)	SSSaveToFile
Tab-delimited file	SSSaveTabFile or SSSaveTabFileU
Delimited file (offers user-defined delimiters)	SSExportToTextFile or SSExportRangeToTextFile or SSExportToTextFileU or SSExportRangeToTextFileU
Excel-formatted file	SSExportExcelBook or SSExportToExcel
HTML file	SSExportToHTML or SSExportRangeToHTML
XML file	SSExportToXML or SSExportRangeToXML
XML buffer	SSExportToXMLBuffer or SSExportRangeToXMLBuffer
An array	SSGetArray

Note that the SSSaveTabFile and the SSExportRangeToTextFile and SSExportToTextFile functions are similar. If you want to save the entire sheet to a tab-delimited file, you might find it faster to call the SSSaveTabFile function. If you want to save only a portion of the sheet, or if you want to define your own delimiters, call the SSExportRangeToTextFile or SSExportToTextFile function.

Return Type

True if the function completes successfully; False otherwise.

ActiveX Correspondence

ExportToTextFile method