combine pipe delimited lines of text in multiple lines with vbscript? - vbscript

Question

I've got a text file of output that looks essentially like this:
SMITHERSON, SMITH|00012345|15-Jan-1999|000885340
619649339|29-Sep-2015 00:09:30|Black|JOHNERSON, JOHN
00067890|02-Dec-1996|000490365|620094551
29-Sep-2015 23:06:01|Green|DAVISON, DAVE|00086543|06-Jun-2001|000938585
226438332|28-Sep-2015 00:12:12|Yellow
Seven pieces of data, they are always in the correct order but unfortunately they run together and onto different lines. There are carriage return + line feeds at the end of each line and there aren't pipe delimiters. The individual pieces of data are never split over multiple lines - I'm having a hard time explaining so here's another example:
DATA 1|DATA 2|DATA 3
DATA 4
DATA 5|DATA 6|DATA 7
DATA 1|DATA 2|DATA 3|DATA 4
DATA 5|DATA 6|DATA 7
etc...
They will have spaces between them but each piece of data will always stay on it's own line.
And I'm trying to turn it into this:
SMITHERSON, SMITH|00012345|15-Jan-1999|000885340|619649339|29-Sep-2015 00:09:30|Black
JOHNERSON, JOHN|00067890|02-Dec-1996|000490365|620094551|29-Sep-2015 23:06:01|Green
DAVISON, DAVE|00086543|06-Jun-2001|000938585|226438332|28-Sep-2015 00:12:12|Yellow
DATA 1|DATA 2|DATA 3|DATA 4|DATA 5|DATA 6|DATA 7
DATA 1|DATA 2|DATA 3|DATA 4|DATA 5|DATA 6|DATA 7
etc.
Seven pieces of data each on their own line, but still seperated by the '|' for another piece of software to read correctly.
I am spending about one hour every day correcting the text files by hand, so I've been trying to find an example I can work from to do this for a while but have not had any luck wrapping my head around this.

Answer 1

This code is ok. I only tested your sample text, not big files.
It will replace line feeds with the delimiter, then convert the entire file into one big array:
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set input = fso.OpenTextFile("input.txt", 1)
Set output = fso.OpenTextFile("output.txt", 2, True)
Dim data: data = input.ReadAll
input.Close()
data = Replace(data, vbCrlf, "|")
data = Split(data, "|")
For i=0 To UBound(data) Step 7
output.WriteLine data(i) & "|" & data(i+1) & "|" & data(i+2) & "|" & data(i+3) & "|" & data(i+4) & "|" & data(i+5) & "|" & data(i+6)
Next
output.Close()

Answer 2

Untested, but something like this might do it. (Essentially it copies input to output as a stream, but newlines in the input are converted to pipe characters and every seventh pipe in the output is converted to a newline)
Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f = fs.OpenTextFile("D:\data\thefile.txt", 1)
Set o = fs.OpenTextFile("D:\data\combined.txt", 2, True)
pipecount = 0
Do While f.AtEndOfFile <> True
If f.AtEndOfLine = True Then
c = f.Read(2) ' Skip the CR+LF
c = "|" ' and pretend we got a pipe character
Else
c = f.Read(1)
End If
If c = "|" Then
pipecount = pipecount + 1
If pipecount = 7 Then
pipecount = 0
o.WriteLine()
Else
o.Write("|")
End If
Else
o.Write(c)
End If
End While
o.Close()