Data dictionary syntax

Each line in a data dictionary defines a field in fixed-width flat file, using the following syntax:

<Variable_name>, <“ASCII string” or “ASCII Numeric”>, <Length_in_bytes>, <Decimal_point >, <Format>, <Comment>

The <Decimal_point > value specifies the number of digits following the decimal point and is valid for ASCII Numeric fields only. For ASCII string fields, the value should always be 0.

For example, the line:

acct_id, ASCII string, 15, 0, Unknown,

means that a record in the file has a field called acct_id, which is a 15-byte string with no decimal point (as the field is a string) with an unknown format and empty comment string.

The format and comment fields are not used by Campaign. Therefore, for the best results, use “Unknown” for the format value and to leave the Comment field blank.