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BE_FileReadText

BE_FileReadText ( pathOrContainer { ; start ; to ; eolChar } )

Description

Reads the contents of the file at pathOrContainer as text and returns the content, optionall beginning at point start, ending at to and treating eolChar as line characters.

Parameters

  • pathOrContainer : A plugin path to the file to read, or a container field.
  • start ( optional ) : The character position to start reading from. The first character is at position 0. Pass empty or a value greater than to to read from the end of the file.
  • to ( optional ) : The character position to stop reading at.
  • eolChar ( optional ) : Pass empty to read characters. Otherwise used to extract a portion of the file.

Use start, to and eolChar to extract a portion of the file - the first character is at position 0 which is different from the native Position function.

Pass start as empty or greater than to to read from the end of the file in reverse back to to - useful for getting the tail of log files for example.

Pass an empty eolChar to use start and to as pure character counts.

If you include a value for eolChar it will treat eolChar as a line break character, and will return lines of text instead of characters of the text. So start as the first line to start at, and to the last line.

Keywords

File Text Read Path

Version History

  • 1.0.0 : First Release
  • 4.0.0 : Allow reading text from a container file instead of a path
  • 4.0.2 : Renamed from BE_ReadTextFromFile
  • 4.2.0 : added start, to and eolChar parameters
  • 5.0.0 : Fixed a bug in the way that the function works on container fields to match the external files behaviour
  • 5.0.0 : Fixed a bug in the eolChar to allow multiple character eol values

Notes

PLUGIN PATHS ARE NOT FILEMAKER PATHS. The plugin uses the same path structure as your operating system, and you cannot pass to the plugin paths that start with file:/ or filewin:/ etc. Read the FAQ for more info about paths.

Note that eolChar doesn't have to be a normal end of line character such as a line feed or carriage return. You can use any character you want. This also means that text brought into FileMaker may not have multiple lines in the sense of what a FileMaker value list has. Or another way : the plugin doesn't modify the text to replace your eolChar with an end of line character.

So you could use "," as the eolChar to get certain columns out of a csv file.

Compatibility

Platform Compatibility
Status Active
Mac FMP Yes
Win FMP Yes
FMS Yes
iOS Yes
Linux Yes

Example Code

BE_FileReadText ( $path )

reads the entire file

BE_FileReadText ( $path ; 1 ; 100 )

reads the first 100 characters

BE_FileReadText ( $path ; 1 ; 10 ; char ( 10 ) )

reads the first 10 lines of the file

BE_FileReadText ( $path ; 10 ;  ; char ( 10 ) )

reads from line 10 to the end of the file

BE_FileReadText ( $path ;  ; 10 ; char ( 10 ) )

reads the last 10 lines of the file.