Controls the default string used for separating values in data exported to text files.

Allowed values

String

Default

A comma (,)

Remarks

Controls the default string used for separating (or delimiting) values in data exported to text files. If an OUTPUT statement does not contain a DELIMITED BY clause, the value of this setting is used.

See also

• isql_quote option [Interactive SQL]
• SET OPTION statement [Interactive SQL]
• isql_escape_character option [Interactive SQL]

Example

The first example sets the field separator to a colon in the data exported to c:\Employees.txt.

SET OPTION isql_field_separator=':';
SELECT Surname, GivenName FROM Employees WHERE EmployeeID < 150;
OUTPUT TO c:\Employees.txt FORMAT TEXT;

This code places the following data in Employees.txt:

'Whitney': 'Fran'
'Cobb':'Matthew'
'Chin':'Philip'
'Jordan':'Julie'

The start and end characters (in this case, single quotation marks) depend on the isql_quote setting.

The next example sets the field separator to a tab in the data exported to c:\Employees.txt.

SET OPTION isql_field_separator='\t';
SELECT Surname, GivenName FROM Employees WHERE EmployeeID < 150;
OUTPUT TO c:\Employees.txt FORMAT TEXT;

This code places the following data in Employees.txt:

Surname GivenName
'Whitney' 'Fran'
'Cobb' 'Matthew'
'Chin' 'Philip'
'Jordan' 'Julie'

The start and end characters (in this case, single quotation marks) depend on the isql_quote setting. The escape character (in this case the backslash) depends on the isql_escape_character setting.