"rob" wrote in message
ups.com...
This will be an ongoing thing. I was thinking about opening it in Excel
(programatically) and store it with tabs but there is a chance some of
the cell content contains tabs as well. Another option would be to open
the file in Excel (programatically) and then read out the cells. This
is a huge overkill, though. Worse it's something that will run on a
server. Although it usually runs during off-peak times I still don't
like the idea doing it this way. Therefore, I might really end up
writing my own parser. Thanks for the input, though. It's definitely
appreciated.


Your welcome. Sorry I couldn't offer any better suggestion. It does sound as
though you will have to write some sort of parser yourself. The scary part
is
you have no control over how the original file is created and what sort of
input
it allows. And with that being the case, it seems that writing a parser
routine that
will consistantly return the correct output, will be tough. Especially if
the app will
be running unattended. Otherwise you could write an editor of sorts that
would allow
a user to make some decisions on what to keep and what to discard. That
would go
a long way towards increasing the dependability of the app. (as long as the
end uers
understands what needs to be retained and what needs to be discarded)
I don't envy you on this one!!!
james