The below is how scan() printed it in R...no obscured data here. I'm
guessing that the 'XX's are place fillers because I read in only one ticker.
The true 'source' is an SQL query. The other program isn't anything anyone
would know about here.

Thanks for any suggestions,

ben

On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Sarah Goslee <sarah.goslee@gmail.com>wrote:

> I'm assuming you don't have access to the original program and source, but
> do you know what it is, and what version? (If you do have access to the
> original, then just export it in a different format.) The identity of
> the program
> would definitely help in reverse-engineering the format or finding a way
> to convert it.
>
> In your example, are you really getting "XX" for all entries, or are you
> obfuscating the data?
>
> Sarah
>
> On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Ben qant <ccquant@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Recap: trying to get a 'dbs' extension file into R.
> >
> > I tried most of the functions in the 'forgein' package. Nothing there
> > worked. Scan seemed to do the best. See below... I've tired using
> readBin()
> > for hours and I haven't extracted the value I want, price.
> >
> > This example is a tiny sample dbs file that should have ticker, fye
> month,
> > company, split fact, and price, where ticker = 'IBM'; fye month='N/A';
> > Company='---------------'; split fact= '2.00' (5/27/99), '2.00'
> (5/28/97),
> > and 'N/A'; Price='165.25' (9/02/11). As you might have guessed this is
> stock
> > time series data on one stock (IBM). See the end of this email. I can see
> > the ticker and Company, but nothing else seems reveal itself.
> >
> >  to.read =scan("C:\\some_path\\one_test2.dbs","rb")
> >
> >  to.read[1:600]
> >  [1] "VER"          "3.7"          "\b"           "\002\017\b\b"
> > "*"            "TICKER"       "NZCIFYE"      "FYE"          "MONTH"
> > "NZCICNAME"    "COMPANY"      "NZCISPLITS"   "SPLIT"
> >  [14] "FACTNZP"      "3"            "PRICE"        "XX"
> > "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> > "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> >  [27] "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> > "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> > "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> >  [40] "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> > "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> > "XX"           "XX"           "XX"           "XX"
> >
> >> to.read[600:length(to.read)]
> >  [1] "XX"                            "XX"
> > "XX"                            "XX"
> > "XX"                            "XX"
> >  [7] "XX"                            "XX"
> > "XX"                            "XX"
> > "XX"                            "XX"
> >  [13] "XX"                            "XX"
> > "XX"                            "XX"
> > "XX"                            "XX"
> >
> > .......cont'd......
> >
> > [565] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [571] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [577] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [583] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [589] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [595] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [601] ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > ""                              ""
> > [607] "IBM       ñØ---------------Jq" "@qn"
> > "@"                             "À\035tÉ"
> >
> >
> > Any ideas or suggestions? I'm thinking readBin() is the way to go but all
> I
> > get are meaningless numbers and the character strings you see above.
> > However, I think scan() with the "rb" is doing a similar thing to
> readBin().
> > (If you are curious, when using readBin() I'm using integer(), n =
> 100000,
> > size = 8 (but I've tried many others), and endian='little".)
> >
> > Thank you so much for your help!
> >
> > Ben
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 1:50 PM, R. Michael Weylandt <
> > michael.weylandt@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> No experience with dbs files, but the foreign package might be able to
> help
> >> you out.
> >>
> >> Michael
> >>
> >> On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Ben qant <ccquant@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> I have a bunch of data files all with "dbs" file extensions. They are
> >>> generated via a SQL query from another program and source. Does anyone
> >>> know
> >>> (or have ideas) how to get the data from a dbs file type into R (or
> into
> >>> some other format that can imported to R)? I've searched online for 4
> >>> hours
> >>> now...
> >>>
> >>> Thanks!
> >>>
> >>> Ben
> >>
>
> --
> Sarah Goslee
> http://www.functionaldiversity.org
>

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