readSimpleDataFile()

Synopsis

Reads simply-formatted data from file. Returns a list of lists containing Numbers , Names , or Strings . Each sublist corresponds to the data on a single line in the file. There is no requirement that the number of data elements on each line be identical. Blank lines and lines beginning with '#' are ignored. Numeric data is parsed as Numbers , never Integers . Strings are enclosed in double-quotes, and must not contain newline characters. All other non-numeric data is parsed as Names , with syntactically illegal characters (such as a minus sign) replaced with underscores.

Note: The file reader functions use a 1024-character buffer, and cannot handle lines longer than 1023 characters.

Alternatives for reading data from text files include the functions ReadInteger, ReadNumber, and ReadSimpleDataFile, the TextFile design , and the ADO.NET library.

Syntax

readSimpleDataFile ( file As User ) As List 
Argument Type Description
file User A file handle previously created by a call to OpenFile.