PRODUCTS

TRY

BUY

LEARN

SUPPORT

COMPANY

Cart

< Previous | Next >

Document Grid

The document grid displays the input file's layout, including spaces, field separators, and control characters. The input file's appearance in the document grid is determined, in part, by its format.

This section covers the following topics:

Example - .txt Files

Display of Delimiting and Control Characters

Document Grid Display Features

Moving Around the Grid

Example - .txt Files

Stylus Studio uses slightly different displays for character-separated and fixed-width .txt files. Consider this file, which uses commas as the field separator:


Make,Model,Year,Mileage BMW,R1150RS,2004,14274 Kawasaki,GPz1100,1996,60234 Ducati,ST2,1997,24000 Moto Guzzi,LeMans,2001,12393 BMW,R1150R,2002,17439 Ducati,Monster,2000,15682 Aprilia,Futura,2001,17320

Figure 142 shows how this character-separated input file appears in the Convert to XML Editor's document grid. By default, Stylus Studio aligns columns and fills the empty cells of the shorter rows with a light blue to aid readability:

Figure 142. Character-Separated File in the Convert to XML Document Grid

You can remove these spaces from the display and view the file in its native format by clicking the Align Fields button ( ) on the tool bar, or by selecting Convert to XML > Align Fields on the menu. This results in the layout shown in Figure 143.

Figure 143. Character-Separated File without Aligned Fields

Fixed-width files are displayed in a slightly different fashion. Consider this fixed-width input file:

Deep-sea octopus      Bathypolypus arcticus http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/barctic.html        
               
Blue-ringed octopus   Hapalochlaena lunulatahttp://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/lunulata.html       
               
Caribbean reef octopusOctopus briareus      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/obriar.html         
               
Giant octopus         Octopus dofleini      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/giant.html          
               
Common octopus        Octopus vulgaris      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/Octopusvulgaris.html
               
Red octopus           Octopus rubescens     http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/redocto.html        
               
Octopus Salutii       Octopus salutii       http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/Osalutii.html       
               
Octopus Macropus      Octopus macropus      http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/Omacropus.html

In a fixed-width file, the empty cells represent actual values (spaces) in the input file. In the second row of this input file, for example, there are three spaces between the first and second columns:

Figure 144. Fixed-Width File in the Convert to XML Document Grid

Display of Delimiting and Control Characters

Stylus Studio displays delimiting and control characters in a way that distinguishes them from plain text values.

Delimiting characters, like the comma used in the example in Figure 142, are displayed with a dark blue background. For files that include sub-fields or arrays (like EDI, for example), the sub-field separator character is shown in a different shade of blue.

Control characters (line feeds and carriage returns, for example) are shown using their abbreviated ASCII value. A carriage return (0x0D) line feed (0x0A) is shown as

, for example. ASCII abbreviations are aligned vertically, to preserve space, as shown in this representation of the ASCII value for tab (0x09):

Stylus Studio understands all Unicode characters,. When editing Line-Oriented Region and Field Name values in the Properties window, you can enter mnemonic values for the C1 and C0 control characters in the following ranges:

C0 control characters with a value from >= 0x00 to <= 0x1F

C1 control characters with a value from >=0x80 to <= 0x9F

For example, you could enter TAB or HT in the Field Separator field in the Properties window, and Stylus Studio would correctly interpret that value. For a list of commonly used control characters, see Specifying Control Characters.

Characters that are discarded from output (like line terminators such as CR and LF and comment lines) are displayed against a gray background.

You can hide control characters by clicking the Toggle Control Characters button ( ) on the tool bar, or by selecting ConvertToXML > Toggle Control Characters from the menu.

Document Grid Display Features

In addition to aligning fields in character-delimited files, the Convert to XML Editor's document grid has several other features that aid readability.

You can display a ruler that identifies each column:

Figure 145. Ruler Helps Identify Columns

To display the ruler, click the Toggle Ruler button ( ) on the tool bar, or select ConvertToXML > Toggle Ruler from the menu.

You can highlight rows that match a pattern that you define in the Match Pattern property in the Properties window:

Figure 146. Matching Rows Are Displayed in Yellow

Matching rows are displayed in a dark yellow, with a green check in the grid's margin; a red x identifies rows that do not match the patter. To highlight matching rows, click the Highlight Matching Rows button ( ) on the tool bar, or select ConvertToXML > Highlight Matching Rows from the menu.

When you define a match pattern, only rows that match the pattern are output to XML. See Filtering Output to learn more about using the Match Pattern property.

The document grid displays both vertical and horizontal grid lines by default; you can hide/show them independently. In the example shown in Figure 147, horizontal grid lines are hidden from the display:

Figure 147. You Can Hide Horizontal and Vertical Grid Lines

To hide horizontal and vertical grid lines, click the Toggle Horizontal Grid Lines ( ) and/or Toggle Vertical Grid Lines ( ) buttons on the tool bar, or select ConvertToXML > Toggle Horizontal Grid Lines and/or Toggle Vertical Grid Lines from the menu.


Tip		Hiding horizontal lines while displaying the ruler is an effective way to quickly scan columns.

Moving Around the Grid

You can move the cursor around the grid

Using the Space bar on your keyboard

Using the directional arrows and Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys on your keyboard

Using your mouse (click on the character on which you want to place the cursor

Using the navigational properties displayed in the Properties window. Navigational properties are hidden by default. To display them, click Toggle Navigational Properties (