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Format of Exported Files (Full-featured version)

Designer
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File and Line Formats

Exported files are in CSV format (comma-separated values) as text files. The data within the file is divided into lines, with line breaks represented by LF (Line Feed) characters.

Each field value is enclosed in double quotes. Line breaks within a double-quoted string do not signify the end of a line. If a field value contains double quotes, they are replaced with two consecutive double quotes[1]. The lines in the file are ordered as follows:

  1. File Header Lines (0 to n lines): The number of lines depends on the form design.

  2. Column Header Line (0 or 1 line): Whether it is output depends on the form design.

  3. Content Lines (0 to n lines): The number of lines depends on the content of the document.

The number of fields and the content of the fields in the file header lines are specified by the Designer. In the column header and content lines, the number of fields is determined by the number of columns in the document, possibly increased by 1, according to the following conditions:

If the form design specifies not to output row headers, the number of fields matches the number of columns in the document, with each column’s title in the column header line and each column’s value in the content lines.

Conversely, if row headers are to be output, an additional field is added at the beginning of both the column header and content lines. In the column header line, this field is just for alignment and remains blank. In the content lines, the title of each line is output.

Value Field Format

In the content lines, the value of the document cell is output as a string. The content of the output string depends on the cell’s Data Type as follows:

  • For numeric data, the value is output as it appears, with its sign and digit grouping edited. Formatting such as comma placement, decimal point placement, and number of decimal places is ignored, but % notation is applied. For negative values, a minus sign is prefixed.

  • For string data, the value is output as is.

  • For Boolean data, either TRUE or FALSE is output.

  • For enumeration data, the label of the selected value is output.

Encoding

The Encoding applied to the export file can be specified by the user at runtime (it does not depend on form design). Correctly specifying the encoding is important when writing out string data that includes characters other than ASCII characters, such as Japanese characters. The two available encodings are:

  • UTF-8

  • Shift JIS