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Carriage Return and Line Feed (CRLF)

Hi there,

In Ninox, I want to create a text file for an import into a 3rd party solution. The 3rd party solution requires line breaks to be formatted as carriage return + line feed ("CRLF").

The "standard" Ninox line break is just "LF". I tried to replace these line breaks via replace(text,"\n","\r\n") - which should work according to the support. But id doesn't. I also tried all kind of alternatives via Integromat / MAKE, but no result. It just works manually with Notepad 2.0 so far.

Has anybody an idea how I can use CRLF line breaks instead of LF line breaks? If possible without external tools (eg. Integromat / MAKE)?

Thank you!

Fabian

5 replies

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    • Ninox developper
    • Jacques_TUR
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Indeed, replace(text,"\n","\r\n") replaces \n by \\r\\n. This comes from the fact that Ninox does not allow to enter special characters, that is to say those which are not alphanumeric, in its script.
    The best way is to use a URI encoding. In this case, the special characters are transformed into hexadecimal numbers with a % prefix. LF = %0A (character 10) and CR = %0D (character 13).

    If you type this code in the console...

    var mySource := "is a
    standard Ninox
    ligne with \n = %0A";
    urlEncode(mySource)

    we obtain : is%20a%0Astandard%20Ninox%0Aligne%20with%20%5Cn%20%3D%20%250A.

    %20 : space,
    %0A : retour à la ligne,
    %5C : \,
    %3D : =,
    %25 : %

    we can then easily replace %0A by %0D%0D :

    replace(urlEncode(mySource),"%0A","%0D%0A"))

    You can see in the result the CRLF instead of LF : is%20a%0D%0Astandard%20Ninox%0D%0Aligne%20with%20%5Cn%20%3D%20%250A

    All that remains is to transform it back into Ninox text using urlDecode :

    urlDecode(replace(urlEncode(mySource),"%0A","%0D%0A"))
    

    To check the result, simply use the debugValueInfo function that allows you to see special characters

    debugValueInfo(urlDecode(replace(urlEncode(mySource),"%0A","%0D%0A")))
    

    The result will be : string("is a\r\nstandard Ninox\r\nligne with \\n = %0A")

      • Ninox developper
      • Jacques_TUR
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Another more elegant and reusable solution is to create the equivalent of the "chr" function in JavaScript.

      By adding these two functions in the global functions (Options->Global functions) :

      function decToHexa(value : number) do
          var hexa := ["0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F"];
          var u := value % 16;
          var d := floor(value / 16);
          item(hexa, d) + item(hexa, u)
      end;
      function chr(ascii : number) do
          urlDecode("%" + decToHexa(ascii))
      end

      then it is easier to use "replace":

      var mySource := "is a
      standard Ninox
      ligne with \n = %0A";
      
      replace(mySource,chr(10),chr(13)+chr(10))

      If we look at it with the debugValueInfo function, we can see that the result is the expected one :  string("is a\r\nstandard Ninox\r\nligne with \\n = %0A")

      But the code is simpler to understand and cleaner (in my opinion) and the two functions "decToHexa" and "chr" can be used in other cases.

    • Fabian_Wieland
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    You're brilliant! You cannot imagine how long and how many solutions I've thought about...

    THANK YOU!

      • Ninox developper
      • Jacques_TUR
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Fabian Wieland Don't worry, I still spent time and sweat on it. I had already tried to create a "chr" function before but I couldn't do it. So your request also helped me to look at the problem differently. 
      Before finding the solution, I was going to suggest you to use Ninext to call directly javascript (see this post: https://forum.ninox.com/t/q6hb6ba/creative-community-and-javascript). The attached application shows you how to do it. Maybe it will be useful for your data export project.
       

    • Ninox developper
    • Jacques_TUR
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I put here a complementary function that allows you to convert a character into a decimal (or hexadecimal) value:

    function ord(t : text) do
        var ascii := urlDecode("%00%01%02%03%04%05%06%07%08%09%0A%0B%0C%0D%0E%0F%10%11%12%13%14%15%16%17%18%19%1A%1B%1C%1D%1E%1F%20!%22#$%25&'()*+,-./0123456789:;%3C=%3E?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ%5B%5C%5D%5E_%60abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz%7B%7C%7D~%7F%C2%80%C2%81%C2%82%C2%83%C2%84%C2%85%C2%86%C2%87%C2%88%C2%89%C2%8A%C2%8B%C2%8C%C2%8D%C2%8E%C2%8F%C2%90%C2%91%C2%92%C2%93%C2%94%C2%95%C2%96%C2%97%C2%98%C2%99%C2%9A%C2%9B%C2%9C%C2%9D%C2%9E%C2%9F%C2%A0%C2%A1%C2%A2%C2%A3%C2%A4%C2%A5%C2%A6%C2%A7%C2%A8%C2%A9%C2%AA%C2%AB%C2%AC%C2%AD%C2%AE%C2%AF%C2%B0%C2%B1%C2%B2%C2%B3%C2%B4%C2%B5%C2%B6%C2%B7%C2%B8%C2%B9%C2%BA%C2%BB%C2%BC%C2%BD%C2%BE%C2%BF%C3%80%C3%81%C3%82%C3%83%C3%84%C3%85%C3%86%C3%87%C3%88%C3%89%C3%8A%C3%8B%C3%8C%C3%8D%C3%8E%C3%8F%C3%90%C3%91%C3%92%C3%93%C3%94%C3%95%C3%96%C3%97%C3%98%C3%99%C3%9A%C3%9B%C3%9C%C3%9D%C3%9E%C3%9F%C3%A0%C3%A1%C3%A2%C3%A3%C3%A4%C3%A5%C3%A6%C3%A7%C3%A8%C3%A9%C3%AA%C3%AB%C3%AC%C3%AD%C3%AE%C3%AF%C3%B0%C3%B1%C3%B2%C3%B3%C3%B4%C3%B5%C3%B6%C3%B7%C3%B8%C3%B9%C3%BA%C3%BB%C3%BC%C3%BD%C3%BE%C3%BF");
        index(ascii, substr(t, 0, 1))
    end

    ord("A") return 65

    With the following code, you can convert a string into an array of ascii numbers: 

    var t := for i in "Hello friends !" do
        ord(i)
    end

    t = [72,101,108,108,111,32,102,114,105,101,110,100,115,32,33]

    So you can easily manipulate the value of each character, then convert it back to a string:

    var m := for i in t do
        chr(i+1);
    end;
    

    m = ["I","f","m","m","p","!","g","s","j","f","o","e","t","!","\""]

    Then find the resulting string :

    var c := join(m,"")
    

    c = "Ifmmp!gsjfoet!\""

Content aside

  • Status Answered
  • 2 yrs agoLast active
  • 5Replies
  • 1828Views
  • 2 Following