Often you may get an input file or data from your client that has fields split out that you may want to bring together on output. For example, maybe your user sent you a file that contains a First Name, Last Name, Middle Initial. You can leave these in separate fields however you could also bring them together in one field when exporting or creating your output file.
In Business Edition when you are exporting you can build a new field when exporting. When you get to the mapping window there is an option at the bottom "New Field".
Export - concatenate fields
When you click on "New Field" Your next window will have the options of building a custom export field. Start by giving your custom field a meaningful name but nothing too long...
Then you will want to start adding your fields or constant text as well as the type of concatenation space or no space between the fields....
When you are done click ok. You will now see that the field you have created is available as a field to export. Just map this up to a field on the right, or add a new field on the right to export your custom field to.
When using Presort you can build a custom filter for your fields when creating your output file.
String Concatenation symbols that can be used are
& This concatenates a string removing all leading and trailing spaces from both. for example " a " & "b" returns "a b".
+ Concatenates string, leaving leading and trailing blank spaces where they are. "a " + "b " returns "a "b ".
- Concatenate string, collecting all trailing blank spaces at the end. "a "-"b " returns "ab ".
When setting up your posting fields you can post the concatenated string as follows
Of course you can customize your concatenation with any fields that you prefer, the above examples were just using a name field, however, maybe you want to combine a customer number field along with expiration date and print that somewhere on your label. The possibilities are endless and it is a great tool to eliminate any mistakes of fields being missed or not printed correctly when they are separated out in the output file.
For more information on operators available and how they work for Presort or any of the Professional products see The Database Prep - A Guide to Input and Output Files. This documentation can be found in your PW\documentation folder or Postware\documentation folder.
