Q: How can I read in variable length delimited fields from a sequential file? An example format would look like this:

field1|field2|field3|... field11|field22|field33|... field111|field222|field333|...

A: Instead of reading a record into individual fields, read the entire record into one field and then use the SQR unstring command to seperate the delimited fields.

---------------------------- Example code begins here -------------------------
!
! This report shows how to read in a sequential file with variable length
! delimited fields.
begin-report
open 'test.dat' as 1 for-reading record=80:vary
while 1
 read 1 into $record:80
 if #end-file
  break
 end-if
 unstring $record by '|' into $field1 $field2 $field3 ...
 show $field1 ' ' $field2 ' ' $field3 ...
end-while
close 1
end-report

---------------------------- Example code ends here ---------------------------