reading a text file from qa? this possible?

Question

reading a text file from qa? this possible?

neotokyo

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Points: 7239
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February 21, 2006 at 8:05 am

#167759

i'm trying to read information from a text file,
and i need to do this from qa.
is this possible?
note:
not trying to query data from a .txt file, but rather
read say whats in the file. much like you would see
if you opened the text file in notepad.
thoughts?
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Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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NotElite Right there with Babe Points: 764 More actions · Answer 1

If I'm understanding you correctly you can just use File->Open or just drag and drop the file onto an open QA instance. However, QA needs to be connected to a database for you to be able to work, even if you are just "using it like notepad"

Krishnan Kaniappan Ten Centuries Points: 1051 More actions · Answer 2

Krishnan Kaniappan

Ten Centuries

Points: 1051

February 21, 2006 at 9:03 am

#622328

master..xp_cmdshell "type C:\test.txt"

-Krishnan

Jimmy Jen SSCrazy Points: 2915 More actions · Answer 3

(1) the qa must have access to the folder where the text file resides; (2) is this a data file with column delimiter or free format ?

neotokyo SSCertifiable Points: 7239 More actions · Answer 4

thanks for all the feed back.

i'm doing this for a job-step that will read various .txt files, and ouput to a notification e-mail.

example:

declare @errorlog

set @errorlog = (master..xp_cmdshell "type C:\test.txt")

--then the usual xp_send... type of thing.

@message = @errorlog

but now i can put in a bunch of different error logs

from various sources so to give a single comprehensive

e-mail with all potential .txt log files that you may

want to check.

let me see if i can give this a go.

thanks again.

cheers

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neotokyo SSCertifiable Points: 7239 More actions · Answer 5

cool...

the xp_cmdshell worked, but having a bit of trouble

getting it to work if SET as a variable.

example:

declare @output

set @output = (master..xp_cmdshell "type C:\test.txt")

this doesn't seem to work.

forgive me if this is a simple question, but

what am i doing wrong?

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Yelena Varshal SSC-Dedicated Points: 34286 More actions · Answer 6

I would use the approach as follows:

job step should be of the type of Operating System Command. As a command I would do:

cscript myscript.vbs

and put all file reading and processing in VBscript that sends SMTP email. I do have several jobs like that.

Regards,Yelena Varsha

Krishnan Kaniappan Ten Centuries Points: 1051 More actions · Answer 7

set nocount on

declare @output varchar(8000)

create table #output (outputtext varchar(8000))

insert into #output

exec master..xp_cmdshell "type C:\test.txt"

select @output=outputtext from #output

drop table #output

print @output

-Krishnan

Jeff Gray SSChampion Points: 10667 More actions · Answer 8

As Krishnan shows, the standard output from the command shell can be captured in a table. The solution is lacking, however, in that it will only return one row from the results. If your shell returns more than one "line", there will be more than 1 row in the #output table.

Best to declare the table with an identity column, so that you can get all the rows back in order.

Like so:

set nocount on

declare @output varchar(8000)

create table #output (id int identity, outputtext varchar(8000))

insert into #output(outputtext)

exec master..xp_cmdshell "type C:\boot.ini"

select @output = ''

select @output=@output + outputtext + char(13) from #output

order by id

drop table #output

print @output

Shawn Wilson Ten Centuries Points: 1271 More actions · Answer 9

and if xp_cmdshell is restricted because of security constraints, you always have the sp_OAxxxxxx procedures to help you out......