[tz] Pulling the data apart ...

[Lester Caine]

Tobias Conradi wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 4:31 PM,  <random832 at fastmail.us> wrote:
>> On Sun, Sep 15, 2013, at 12:23, Michael Deckers wrote:
>>>
>>>      On 2013-09-13 18:32, Alan Barrett wrote:
>>>
>>>>   The input format is documented in the zic(8) man page.  Here's the
>>>>   relevant part:
>>>>       Input lines are made up of fields.  Fields are separated from
>>>>       one another by any number of white space characters.
>>>
>>>      Actually, "one or more" seems to be meant rather than "any number"
>>>      (which would include zero).
>>
>> .... The fact that they're _separated_ implies there is at least one
>> character, because if not then there is no separation.
> It does not. There could also be separation by less than one white
> space character.
>
> Only, one could not find it by looking for white space characters.

There is no reason that a format could not be fixed length fields simply padded 
with spaces as required. If an entry uses all the space then no separation. 
Pulling in data originally formated on 80 column punched often did that simply 
to get the most data on the card. That is where my 'header code' comes from, the 
first 2 characters identify the record type, and the next character is the first 
field of data so no white space :)

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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