i'm having trouble with data showing up "missing."

I have a data file with seventeen records that have up to 15 different products(columns). First fifteen come out just fine but the last two are showing a "missing" value in the data preview.

.csv file, comma-separated.

using the latest FP version.

Screen shots to show my example.

screen shot one shows the first fifteen records.

screen shot two shows how the data value looks.

Not sure how to correct this?

Latest version of FP being used.

This is not really a problem with either FusionPro or your job. Rather, it's an issue with Excel not outputting enough delimiters for the empty field values. (I would call it a "bug" in Excel, but despite its popularity as a database, it really isn't one, and therefore does not make the same distinction between "empty" and "missing" values that a serious database or data-driven application does.)

See this post:

http://forums.printable.com/showpost.php?p=595&postcount=2

And this thread from the old email forum:

http://www.mail-archive.com/fusionpro@lists.printable.com/msg01717.html

A few possible workarounds are mentioned in there, including:

• In Excel, add a "dummy" field (column) after all the other fields in the data file, with some non-empty value in each record (row).
  
• Instead of using Excel, open the CSV file in the Calc application from the OpenOffice suite (openoffice.org), and re-save it.
  
• Use the "Suppress if containing empty variables" feature in the Paragraph Settings dialog for each line outputting the field value.
  
• If there are fewer than 1000 records in the data, open the template, go to FusionPro -> Data Definition -> Edit Flat File Data and click "Save".
  
• For each field in the job, create a rule with the same name as the field which simply returns the field.
  

• For each field in the job, create a rule with the same name as the field which simply returns the field.
  

Thanks for your help Dan! This is a weekly job that we get in and by doing your last comment will help just to open the template, link to data and compose.

Thanks:D

Ryan

Thanks for your help Dan! This is a weekly job that we get in and by doing your last comment will help just to open the template, link to data and compose.

 

Thanks:D

 

Ryan

Also check you data for returns in the fields. I had a client that would hit "alt-enter" in her excel file to force line breaks in here cells to "make it look pretty"... It was a bi monthly job as well. I had to go through the data a clean them although I suspect a rule could be written to look for the ASCII equivalent and change it to a space or "<br>" instead..

Mark

Also check you data for returns in the fields. I had a client that would hit "alt-enter" in her excel file to force line breaks in here cells to "make it look pretty"... It was a bi monthly job as well. I had to go through the data a clean them although I suspect a rule could be written to look for the ASCII equivalent and change it to a space or "<br>" instead..

Please refer to this post regarding "soft returns" in Excel data files:

http://forums.printable.com/showpost.php?p=1190&postcount=7