2019.1

Text-based emulation
Text-based emulations display your data in plain text in the Data Selector and the Data Pane,
one line at a time, up to the limit you specify in the emulation properties (by default, 66 lines).
This is especially useful for legacy systems (such as AS/400 computers) that send data as text
meant for older line printers using pre-printed forms. The emulation options are used to make
sure your data is stable.
Stabilizing data is the process of defining the size of the data page and where the first data
page occurs in the data stream. A stable data page is critical to obtain accurate results. When
you stabilize your data, you also need to consider the internal structure of each data page. The
internal structure of each data page must also be stable to make the data selections you use
reliable (see "Data selections" on page48). Ideally, a given piece of data occupies the same
position across all data pages, or provides some stable characteristic that makes it possible to
locate it on every data page.
Text-based emulation options
The following properties are available for the text-based emulations (Line Printer, ASCII,
Channel Skip and CSV) to help stabilize the data:
l
Add/remove characters: Enter the number of characters to add to, or remove from, the
head of the data stream, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value.
Positive values add characters while negative values remove characters. Further note
that if you remove characters in a CSV emulation, you should ensure that you do not
inadvertently remove field or text delimiters.
l
Add/remove lines: Enter the number of lines to add to, or remove from, the head of the
data stream, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value. Positive values
add lines while negative values remove lines.
l
Lines per page: Enter the number of lines each data page contains, or use the spin
buttons to increment or decrement the value. A higher value means more lines will be
displayed on each data page. Note that increasing the value for this setting increases the
amount of RAM used by the application and may exceed the system’s capacity. Since the
Show used cells option also uses up some RAM, consider removing this option (see
"Data Selector display preferences" on page752) to reduce system load.
l
Pages in buffer: Enter the number of data pages you want the data page buffer to
contain, or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value. Putting more pages
in the buffer multiples the lines shown and is only useful in specific cases.
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