Convert between Windows, Linux and Mac files Revision as of 19:49, 27 January 2017 by ToddAdmin (Talk | contribs) (→‎Converting Between Files Types) (diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

This article shows how to convert between different file types and perform other useful conversions.

• Converting between Windows/DOS, UNIX/Linux and Macintosh text files.
• Converting from fixed-length records into normal text files.
• Converting a text file into fixed-length records.
• Padding a text file to make all lines the same length.
• Stripping trailing spaces from a text file.

Converting Between Files Types

vEdit supports Windows/DOS, UNIX/Linux and Mac text files. Main differences between them are the “newline” characters used at the end of each line. vEdit also supports data files with fixed-length records.

When opening a file, vEdit automatically determines the most likely file type. It can usually determine the correct file type for text files (Windows/DOS, UNIX/Linux or Mac). It is highly recommended confirming the file type before doing file converting.

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Confirm File Type

1. Move the cursor to the end of a line 2. Press Alt-D (the hot-key for View > Toggle display mode)

You can now see the hex codes for the “newline” characters, if any. “0D” is the hex code for Carriage-Return. “0A” is the hex code for Line-Feed.

Windows / DOS

If each line ends in “0D 0A”, you have a Windows/DOS text file.

Linux / UNIX

If each line ends in just “0A”, you have a UNIX text file.

Apple Mac

If each line ends in just “0D”, you have a Mac text file.

If you don't see “0D” or “0A”, then you must have already explicitly set a record-length with CONFIG > File handling > File type.

3. Double-check that CONFIG > File handling > File type is set to the correct file type.

Windows/DOS

Windows set to “0”

Linux / UNIX

Linux set to “1”

Apple Mac

Mac set to “2”

Otherwise, it is set to the data file's record length.

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Since converting between Windows/DOS and UNIX text files is very common, vEdit provides the easy-to-use functions:

Convert Win / DOS to UNIX in 3 just steps, Click EDIT, Convert then Win/DOS to UNIX or convert UNIX to Win / DOS by clicking EDIT, Convert then UNIX to Win/DOS.

They are described in

the earlier topic “File type - Windows/DOS and UNIX Text Files”. You can convert between all file types with {EDIT, Convert, CONVERT macro}.