Specifies the file format that the provider uses to parse all text files.

Data Type

string

Default Value

"CsvDelimited"

Remarks

When this property is set, the add-in parses all text files in the target folder according to the specified format. The format can also be defined in ExtendedProperties using Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0-style syntax. The format defined in ExtendedProperties overrides the value set in this property, and any Format entry in a Schema.ini file overrides both.

The FMT property supports the following values:

• CsvDelimited: Fields are separated by commas.
• TabDelimited: Fields are separated by tabs.
• FixedLength: Fields are defined by a fixed number of characters. Column widths must be specified in Schema.ini.

The following example parses all text files in a folder as tab-delimited values with headers:

URI=C:\mytsv;FMT=TabDelimited

If the property is set to any other value, the add-in treats the literal input as the delimiter. For example:

URI=C:\mypipdelimitedfile;FMT=||

Hexadecimal delimiters are also supported. Any value starting with '0x' (for example, FMT=0x01) is treated as a hexadecimal delimiter rather than a string literal.

Hexadecimal delimiters do not support escape sequences.

This property is useful for defining how the add-in interprets text data when reading delimited or fixed-width files.