You can't avoid the chr$(26) stopping a file open for input. The best
thing is to open it in binary mode. That is much more flexible that
random.

If you have to stick with opening the file for input, you are stuck!

ATB

Charles Kincaid

Well, all my life I've asked stupid questions, but here goes a good (and
very difficult one).

I'm trying to read from a sequential file.  The file is supposed to be
of any type (HTML, TXT, GIF, JPG, MID, MP3, anything), and therefore,
has a TON of weird extended ASCII chars.  The problem is, when reading
from the file, if it detects chr$(26), it will flag this as the end of
file, and will not read beyond this point.

I've tried opening a RANDOM file and (using a user-defined type and the
GET command), managed to get QB to read Chr$(26) without going EOF on
me, but I'd rather not have to rewrite the code, making it a RANDOM
file.

I know chr$(26) IS the EOF character, but I was hoping there'd be a way
around it.

Is there any hope for me????

Thanks anyway,

Brandon Bagwell

Ok,  so you are probably reading one character at a time, right?

So the only change to the code (re-writing part) is how the file
is opened and fielded (???)

Whaza big deal about that?

Open and read the file in BINARY mode, or, test the extention and open as is
required.

   ____    _    ____      ____  _____
  |  _ \  / \  / ___) __ | ___)(_   _) Don Schullian

  |____//_/ \_\(____/\__/|_|     |_|    www.DASoftVSS.com
  ___________________________________   www.basicguru.com
      Vertical Software Solutions

'za big deal is knowing when you've reached the real end of the file.

After all you can't use EOF( ) now.  But there are two functions which will
help LOF( ) -- Length Of File -- which tells you how many bytes there are in
a file, and LOC() -- Location Of Cursor -- which tells you how far through
the file you have read so far.

You can either read the file several bytes at a time and use a

    FOR J = 1 TO LOF(file) STEP several
        LET T$ = Input$(several, file)
        ...
    NEXT

loop or you can read it a "chunk" at a time and use a

    DO WHILE LOC(file) <= LOF(file)
        LET T$ = SPACE$(chunksize)
        GET #file, T$
        ...
    LOOP

or some variation on either of them.

Cheers

Derek

Actually, you CAN use EOF with a file opened in BINARY mode; however, EOF()
is not true until AFTER an unsuccessful read (GET). With sequential I-O
(INPUT#) EOF()  will be true BEFORE a read.

However, your idea of keeping track of LOF and SEEK (preferred to LOC) is
the superior practical method of reading the file, the whole file and
nothing but the file.

--
Michael Mattias
Racine WI USA