Importing text file

Question

I have a text file I'm trying to import and one of the columns is a mix of text and numbers. Some numbers are formatted as 123- with the negative at the end of the number. When I import the file some numbers are missing the "-" all together. I'm importing as a flat file with fixed width. Any suggestions on importing the file so that I'm not missing any data?

OTrieger · Answer

How is your Input Date tool set up?

apathetichell · Answer

Is this file a delimited file? a fixed width file has fields at fixed spaces. that means if you say the number column is say 1-4

and the numbers look like:

1234

-123

3480

1234-

44898

the last characters of the last two terms will be omitted - they are not in the specific field length you set. Maybe it's tab delimited (	) or , delimited?