🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 8 Jun 2003 09:33:45 +0100, "CapStick" <lol@ljones81.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

>Apoligies In Advance For the confusing Scope Of this Question.

Warranted, and accepted. ;-)

>I want to create some files containing fielded (Columnar) Data.

Not quite sure what you mean by "Columnar" data.
A file is a contiguous stream of bits/bytes. It is linear,
not multi-dimensioned. 

>One of the things i would like to do is vary the amount of columns in
>different files at run time.

Sort of like "OCCURS DEPENDING ON" in COBOL?

>Any pointers to a good Example of  handling, delimiting and filing mixed
>data would be appreciated .

Personally, I find your problem description too vague and general
to permit offering specific suggestions. Perhaps a sample of data
would help?

I presume you've considered the use of structs? They can contain
a field which indicates which members are valid for each object.

You might get some ideas from browsing the file handling routines
in the SNIPPETS collection:
http://www.eti.pg.gda.pl/KATEDRY/kecs/lab-cpp/snippets/

--
Wayne A. King 
(ba994@torfree.net, wayne.king@ablelink.org, 
 waking@idirect.com, Wayne_A_King@compuserve.com)