File Type

Please provide the data in an ASCII text, fixed width, ANSI standard format following the file description provided. The following rules apply when using ASCII text, fixed width, ANSI standard:

A/N, Alphanumeric:

• Only ASCII character codes 32 through 126.
• Alphanumeric fields should be left justified and padded (to the right) as necessary with spaces (ASCII character code 32). Do not use text delimiters.
  For example: This -> John Doe    Not This ->  “John Doe”
   
• Certain alphanumeric fields may be restricted to a specific set of values (as indicated for given fields).
• Alphanumeric fields that are not applicable, are unavailable, or that are null fields in your system should be provided as all spaces.

N, Numeric:

• Only ASCII character codes 48 through 57 (i.e., the numerals 0 through 9), ASCII character code 46 (a period or decimal point), ASCII character code 32 (space), or in rare instances (please see note below) ASCII character code 45 (minus sign).
   
• Numeric fields should be right justified and padded (to the left) as necessary with leading spaces. Use no formatting (commas, etc.).
   
• Numeric fields may contain a minus (-) sign unless otherwise noted.
   
• Numeric fields may contain a decimal point; the Format field in the file description for each column will indicate the only format acceptable. If a column contains a decimal point, it will have a fixed number of decimal places (as indicated for given fields). If your system maintains decimal (floating-point) numbers to a greater number of decimal places than we request, your values should be rounded (NOT truncated) to the number of decimal places we have requested.
   
• Numeric fields that are not applicable, are unavailable, or that are null fields in your system should be provided as all spaces.

D, Date:

• Only ASCII character codes 48 through 57 (i.e., the numerals 0 through 9) and ASCII code 32 (space).
   
• Date fields should always contain 8 characters and be in year month day form (i.e., YYYYMMDD) with no additional formatting (i.e., no slashes or hyphens). Julian dates must be converted. For example, the date July 1, 2001 should appear like: 20010701.
   
• Dates that are not applicable, are unavailable, or that are null fields in your system should be provided as all spaces.

L, Logic:

• Each row should contain the specified number of characters and should be terminated with a carriage-return line-feed character sequence (ASCII character codes 10 and 13).
   
• Only ASCII character code 78 (capital N – indicating NO or FALSE), ASCII character code 89 (capital Y – indicating YES or TRUE), or ASCII character code 32 (space).
   
• Logic fields that are not applicable, are unavailable, or that are null fields in your system should be provided as a space.

Last updated: Friday, December 14, 2007 @ 11:47 a.m. Olson Research Associates, Inc. - info@olsonresearch.com - 410-290-6999