Useful Utility Commands

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EXAMINE
The EXAMINE command is a powerful tool when you have no idea what is in file. Is the source PC/Windows or Linux? Is the file all ASCII text or perhaps all numeric? Can you discern a pattern of data fields and delimiters or is it binary and unreadable except by the program which created it.

If you have a mystery file, EXAMINE is just what you need.
SHOWBYTES

The SHOWBYTES is another utility command that displays the actual bytes in an external file. Often data that is specific to a particular program will have that information in the beginning bytes of a file.
REFORMAT

The REFORMAT command is often the useful second step. EXAMINE detects a file with the Unix NL (new line) delimiter and you need a Windows type file with carriage returns and line feeds. Or perhaps EXAMINE detects unprintable characters that will hinder analysis. REFORMAT can be used to change or delete the problem characters.

Examine

EXAMINE reads an external input file and counts how many times each type of ascii byte occurs. It writes a report and, if requested, a P-STAT output file which has the number of times each of the 256 possible ascii characters was found.

An end-of-case (EOC) field like CR LF can be supplied. If so, the report is extended to show the number of cases in the file, the smallest and largest record lengths, and the number of characters, if any, after the final EOC.

The report summarizes what was found. It also gives the number of CR-LF combinations, and displays the first ten and last ten bytes in the input file. If, however, there are 20 or fewer bytes in the file, all are displayed.

Consider this unlikely 8-byte file (named test77).

byte 1: an uppercase A (ascii 65)

byte 2: CR, which means a carriage return (ascii 13)

byte 2: CR, which means a carriage return (ascii 13)

byte 3: LF, which means a line feed (ascii 10)

byte 4: an ascii 211

byte 5: an ascii 022

byte 6: LF

byte 7: an uppercase B (ascii 66)

byte 8: CR

Doing EXAMINE on this file produces the following report.

     -------------------EXAMINE completed---------------------
     | Input file test77 has 8 bytes.                        |
     |                                                       |
     |     1 CR-LF was found.                                |
     |     1 CR without a following LF was found.            |
     |     1 LF without a preceding CR was found.            |
     |     1 byte less than 32 (besides CR or LF) was found. |
     |     1 byte greater than 127 was found.                |
     |                                                       |
     | The input file contains these bytes:                  |
     |       A       CR      LF      211     022             |
     |       LF      B       CR                              |
     |                                                       |
     | Time: less than 0.1 second.                           |
     ---------------------------------------------------------

Examine

Showbytes

Reformat