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CleverK1
11-18-04, 04:52
Hi

I have the same problem that was already mentioned below. But I can't find any solution.
We have a database which has .idx and .dat files.
I thought about informix or c-isam - but couldn't open any of the file.
If you open the .dat file in an editor you can see the content with many other mysterious signs.
I put two sample files in here too.
We have to build an addon for that.
Its a software that works under windows - and I can't see any .voc file.

With best regards
Norbert
tommk
11-18-04, 19:47
You probably have a MicroFocus COBOL ISAM file. The .dat file is the data file, the .idx file is the index file.

There are 2 ways you can create a text file from these files:

1. Write a COBOL program to convert them
2. Use a hex editor to strip the BOF, EOF, BOR and EOR characters from the .dat file. These should be obvious, and if you have a large file you should be able to automate the process. If you replace the EOR characters with a LF/CR pair, you have a text file.
arvindram
11-23-04, 13:19
tommk,

Can you please explain how you would proceed with Step 2? I do not know Cobol myself. But I need to convert some Cobol .dat files to Text files. I can open the .Dat file and read some of the information, but like the OP mentioned there are other unrecognizable (at least for notepad) characters. I presume this could be the BOF, End of File, BOR and End of Record characters. But the do not seem to be consistent. How do you strip the characters?
tommk
11-24-04, 02:21
With a hex editor, you need to filter out all the characters between the EOR (End of Record) and BOR (Beginning of Record) characters and just leave the record itself (which, if it's a COBOL record is fixed length fields). I used the microfocus COBOL editor to do this, it had scripting and auto repeat features.

I can't remember what the characters were, but I think there was an @ at the beginning, and a hex"01" at the end. You need to have a look at the file and find a pattern, I don't have the software any longer.
migas00
12-21-04, 08:35
Hi Cleverk,

I have the same problem. I have a database with 1 big .dat file and 8 .idx files.
Can you help me?

Best regards
Miguel