When masking a CSV file with Fast Data Masker (FDM), the scramble file is going out of format and making changes to the header as well as data fields.
The header fields are double quoted in the original file, but FDM has removed those from the scramble file.
The empty fields were not double quoted in the original file, but scramble has them double quoted.
Also, some numeric fields towards the end of record have lost the double quotes in the scramble file.
I am not sure how I get null fields to come up empty without the quotes as in the original file.
I understand that in the context of opening the files in Excel both these do not make a difference, but if an application is processing the file (.dat) directly, then I believe both will mean different things.
An empty double quote in a field would mean an empty string and no quotes in a field refers to a null. Is there some option or way to have FDM keep the null as is without retaining double quotes as is in the same file?
Imagine a situation where that field was a numeric field.
I have set NUMQUOTED=N, but the field does not contain any data for all columns then will the empty quotes turn up and in that case.
We are not specifying the type of data of the column in the definition, so how does FDM know whether a date field with value 01182018 is a date field or a numeric one?
CA Test Data Manager
TDM
Fast Data Masker
FDM
Adding NUMQUOTED=Y to the file definition will fix the missing quotes on the numeric fields.
Setting parameter IGNOREQUOTECHAR = Y will fix the quotes on the header column.
For CSV files, the parser FDM uses does not distinguish between data enclosed in double quotes or not.
You would generally enclose data in double quotes if the data itself contains a comma, this then escapes that comma.
So, if ALL the data is enclosed in double quotes or all the data is not, the 2 files are identical as regards the data.
Opening both in Excel will show the same values. Similarly, for empty values-
Myvalue1,””,Myvalue3 is the same as
Myvalue1,,Myvalue3
There is no way the parser shows if the original data had double quotes or not. It just shows the data in a given row/column, so this option is not possible.