[thelist] Stupid Hack in Winblowz for CSV Delimiters

Max Schwanekamp lists at neptunewebworks.com
Thu Mar 1 11:42:59 CST 2007


Chris Dorer wrote:
> Don't tell me this, seriously, Joel ;).
> I fumbled with the 'text to columns' under 'data'  for 3 hours to no avail.
> I was trying to use the pipe '|' as a delimiter
> 
>> also, the 'text to columns' under 'data' allows you to choose a
>> delimiter on the fly, as it always has. not sure what Chris was trying
>> to accomplish, but it seems like there might have been an easier way.

FWIW, OpenOffice --on Windows too!-- allows setting one or more 
delimiters when opening any CSV (as well as the encapsulating 
character).  If you can't figure it out in MS Office, often OOo is a 
good backup.

Kinda OT...

<tip type="Checking string type without Regular Expressions in PHP" 
author="Max Schwanekamp">
Regular expressions are the best, most powerful, most stupendous thing 
ever invented since yeasted bread.  But in PHP (and most elsewhere) 
they're relatively resource-intensive, especially the popular PCRE regex 
functions.  When you're just trying to detect for say, a valid 
alphanumeric form entry, you can use the Character Type (ctype_*) 
functions.  These use a native C library, and are significantly faster 
than preg_*, eregi_* and even some str_* functions.

http://us2.php.net/ctype
http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5899580.html
</tip>

-- 
Max Schwanekamp
NeptuneWebworks.com
541-255-2171




More information about the thelist mailing list