DSXchange

In the final stage of my job where the target is a sequential file(*.dat).
Char SQL Type columns are getting trailed by weird characters that look like small boxes which are highly unprintable.
I can view these in Wordpad but not in textpad.
I have already used the function CompactWhiteSpace,Trim, TrimB,StripWhiteSpace to get rid of these trailing characters.
Nothing seems to work. Is there a special option Im missing in Format properties that could help get rid of these characters.
Pl. suggest. Thanks in advance!

Generally these are carriage return char.s - char(13). Try to trim them out.

"I have already used the function CompactWhiteSpace,Trim, TrimB,StripWhiteSpace to get rid of these trailing characters. "
I have verified the file again. They don't seem to exist when I view them on our AIX box. When I ftp over in ASCII format they get trailed in.
Any inputs??
Thanks!

As the columns you have problems with are "Char SQL Type columns" then I suspect the data does not fill the size of the Char Column and thus the 'funny' characters are a pad character.
If you don't want padding then maybe you need to change the Char length or use a VarChar?

i have just tried varchar and that dint seemed to tweak either. When I view the file on the AIX box the string columns don't have any 'weird' trailing characters. When I ftp it over(ASCII mode) they seem to get trailed. They are visible only from wordpad and although notepad seems place blanks in those characters and then concats with the de-limiter.
Thanks!

I think that these special characters are internal representation of characters in every editing application.

Use a hex editor to determine what the trailing characters are. It will then be easier to control DataStage to avoid writing them.

ds_is_fun,

Set the APT_STRING_PADCHAR parameter to "space". You can do it from Administrator.

Regards
~Amitava

try this

TrimLeadingTrailing(Trim(input column, char(13), 'T'))