My initial tests using this technique look pretty good. I exported 100 rows and 
all but one imported into Excel OK. Most of the text fields don't contain any 
"s, but one that does caused the import to fail. How are you doubling the "s 
when using Replace String?

I tried Replace string([table]text_field;Char(34);Char(34)+Char(34))

Thanks,
Brad


From: "Benedict, Tom" <tom.bened...@optum.com>
Date: Monday, August 6, 2018 at 1:50 PM
To: Bradley Perkins <bperk...@lanl.gov>, "4d_tech@lists.4d.com" 
<4d_tech@lists.4d.com>
Subject: RE: Export text columns containing carriage returns to Excel?

I didn’t have to escape the embedded commas. I think the quotes around all the 
fields took care of them. You will likely need to experiment. I found that 
Excel is fussy about CSV. It definitely doesn’t like importing CSV via the 
import wizard unless there are no embedded delimiters.

Tom

From: Perkins, Bradley D [mailto:bperk...@lanl.gov]
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2018 12:34 PM
To: Benedict, Tom; 4d_tech@lists.4d.com
Subject: Re: Export text columns containing carriage returns to Excel?

Tom,

That sounds extremely useful. In addition to "" any "s in the text do I also 
need to \, any commas?

I doubt the data source will be too large, but if it is can break the export 
into a couple of files. We'll only need to do this once.

Thanks,

Brad Perkins

From: "Benedict, Tom" <tom.bened...@optum.com>
Date: Monday, August 6, 2018 at 1:26 PM
To: Bradley Perkins <bperk...@lanl.gov>, "4d_tech@lists.4d.com" 
<4d_tech@lists.4d.com>
Subject: RE: Export text columns containing carriage returns to Excel?

Brad,

Here’s a hint that you may (or may not) find useful.

I used a single column in the QR Editor to hold the full ‘record’ I was 
exporting. I wrapped all the fields with double-quotes and used commas as field 
delimiters. I also had to escape any embedded quotes by replacing them with 
double-double quotes. The result was a CSV file which can be opened in Excel 
(double-clicked on Desktop, not via File>Open. Excel is strange). Use CSV 
avoided the didn’t need to restore any of the embedded characters.

My data source ended up being too large to use this approach, as the output 
file exceeded 4GB, so I end up writing similar code to generate the CSV. But if 
your data is modest sized the QR approach avoid the code-test-release cycle 
(unless your system is running interpreted).

Tom Benedict
Optum



From: Perkins, Bradley D [mailto:bperk...@lanl.gov]
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2018 1:26 PM
To: Benedict, Tom; 4d_tech@lists.4d.com
Subject: Re: Export text columns containing carriage returns to Excel?


Hi Tom,

I've been working  this with the QR Editor with some success. Another challenge 
I've found is that the 4D text fields have carriage returns, carriage 
return/new line pairs, and even some tabs.  Therefore I'll need to nest the 
calls to Replace string in the proper order to place markers for all three.



Thanks for pointing out the limitations I will need to see if any of the text 
fields are larger than 32,767 characters. This is an older system that started 
life in v3. The output file size will not be an issue.

Best,

Brad

________________________________
From: Benedict, Tom <tom.bened...@optum.com>
Sent: Friday, August 3, 2018 2:19:44 PM
To: Perkins, Bradley D; 4d_tech@lists.4d.com
Subject: Re: Export text columns containing carriage returns to Excel?

Brad Perkins writes:

>I've been asked to provide an export from a legacy 4D system delivered as an 
>.xlsx file.

>The challenge I'm facing is that this table contains a number of text fields 
>and
>the customer requires the imported column cells to retain the returns or line 
>feeds
>in the original text fields. If I do a straight tab-delimited export with 
>carriage returns
>as the end of line marker, the imported result does not preserve the original 
>row
>because any returns encountered in the text fields are interpreted as end of 
>row.

>My other challenge is that I need to do this with out-of-box end user 
>capabilities
>from a client (v15.4 remote) against a compiled server. I can't install 
>plugins, create new methods, etc.
>It has been many years since I've had to do this type of thing in 4D.

>Can I replace the carriage returns in the text fields with a special marker 
>during export?
>I could replace the Excel cells containing the any carriage return markers 
>with actual returns after import.

Use the Quick Report Editor. You can put formulas in the columns which include 
a call to Replace string.

There are some limitation which I’ve encountered:


-          The Quick Report Editor is 32bit (evidently) which limits the size 
of the output file to 4GB. Hopefully you don’t run in to that limit. (I did 
recently).

-          Any given cell in Excel can only hold 32,767 characters. If you have 
more than that you’ll have to do some fancy segmenting into another column in 
the output.

HTH, let me know if you have further questions. I have very recent experience 
doing just this.

Tom Benedict
Optum


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