Complex CSV export part 2 - the attack of the spurrious invisible characters

[John W. Scott]

I am still banging my head on my desk over this one.  I enclosed the  
entire output string in a stripprinatble function per Jim's  
suggestion, with great confidence that the problem was solved.  The  
example creates a csv list of options; in this case of one or more  
sizes for shirts:

{stripprintable(?((ÇSizeShortÈ ­ "") AND (ÇItemSeqÈ = 1), '
"' + ÇDR ItemÈ + 'sizes"' + 	',"Size","' + ÇSizeÈ + ?(Çsize diffÈ =  
0.00, "", "<+" + str(Çsize diffÈ) + ">") + "<sku:-" + ÇSizeShortÈ +  
"><NoTitle>" +'"',"") + ?((ÇSizeÈ ­ "") AND (ÇItemSeqÈ ­ 1), ',"' +  
ÇSizeÈ + "<+" + str(Çsize diffÈ) + "><sku:-" + ÇSizeShortÈ +  
"><NoTitle>" +'"',""))}

Unfotunately, I am still getting the (seemingly) random-length string  
of null characters at the end of some lines (each line can be  
composed of more than one record).  The null characters always appear  
at the end of the line, and never embedded within a line.

I also tried saving the entire file as csv text to find null or other  
invisible characters and determine in which fields they reside, but  
that export appears devoid of invisibles.

The following line is an example of a multi-record output and had 8  
nulls just before the return character:
"SDTWBSPKsizes","Size","Youth Small 2-4<sku:-YS><NoTitle>","Youth  
Medium 6-8<+0.00><sku:-YM><NoTitle>","Youth Large 10-12<+0.00><sku:- 
YL><NoTitle>"        

This one was created from a single record (only one size is available  
for this item, so there is only one option) and had 17 nulls:
"MTMJ90WTsizes","Size","Junior Large<sku:-JL><NoTitle>"                 

I tried deleting the offending records from the database that create  
the first option with null chars: the null string moves up to the  
previous record each of the dozens of times I tried this.  If I do it  
enough times, the null string drops a single null char Ñ this  
happened twice dropping progressively from nine to seven null  
chars).  (I also tried deleting the option-records after the  
offending ones (those that created the line with null chars); that  
did not affect their appearance.)

I worked my way up my database, deleting records and re-outputting  
and this happened every time.  When I deleted the first record, the  
null string jumped up one line to the line that describes the option  
format.  This line is created in a group header and contains no data.

;UniqueName,DisplayName,Tag1,Tag2,...,Tag n,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Finally, when I delete the group header from the form, the very first  
line (which is blank) contains the null string.  (Each new line is  
created when a new record that contains an option, and is the first  
record for a new item is encountered.)

While I have a better grasp of what is not causing the mysterious  
null strings, but feel no closer to solving them.

Any more ideas?