Fielded Text Delphi library

The Delphi TFieldedText library allows you to read and write text files with tables of values (eg. CSV files) in the same way as you read from and write to a database table.

The format and structure of the data within the text file is defined by a small XML file called the Meta file. TFieldedText uses the Meta file to read from and write to the text file as if it were a database. Typically you would use a Fielded Text Editor to create these Meta XML files.

The format (schema) of this Meta XML file is specified by a standard defined at http://www.fieldedtext.org. In addition to using these Meta XML files, TFieldedText can also be used to create them. These XML files can then also be used by any other software component/library which support this standard. Refer to the http://www.fieldedtext.org website for more information about this standard.

TFieldedText can be used to parse or generate nearly any type of CSV and Fielded Text file. This includes files which have:

• fields are separated by delimiters (eg CSV files).
• fields which are fixed length.
• fields that are quoted.
• fields that have new lines embedded in them.
• headings.
• substitutions
• lines with different sets of fields based on key fields.
• and more …

The code can be library can be compiled to both 32 and 64 bits. It has been release into the public domain so you are free to use the code however you like. The source code can be accessed from the SourceForge repository¹.

Code Examples can be view here.