Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr!tektronix!percival!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Lotus WKS Format
Message-ID: <1424@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 31 May 89 04:04:41 GMT
References: <0YT2aDy00WB-QC-kEt@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Rick's Home Grown Unix; Portland, OR
Lines: 28

In article <0YT2aDy00WB-QC-kEt@andrew.cmu.edu> ba0k+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brian Patrick Arnold) writes:
<We are developing an application to convert "spreadsheet-like" information
<into the IBM Lotus 123 "WKS" format, or optionally into a Lotus-importable
<format.  We need to know where to find published information on this format
<or on a compatible format.  If anyone has tips or suggestions as to finding
<this information, we would appreciate any help you can give.  Thank you.

Well, there are books that give the format of both WKS and WK1 files, but
if all you are porting is *data* (ie no formulas or macros), then there
is a much simpler solution.

Using the <F>ile <I>mport <N>umbers function 123 will cheerfully import
data in comma delimited format with quoted strings:
"String data",1,5.67,"more string data"
"Still more data",3.14,8,"even more string data"
 
would load as:
String data	1	5.67	more string data
Still more data	3.14	8	even more string data

This format also has the advantage of being importable to dBase, and being
readable by BASIC programs (and routines to read it are easily written in
other languages).
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short