Import tab delimited data using a dictionary but using tab and ignore space

[Carlos Quiros]

I have some tab delimited data that looks like this:

b783288b-1c0e-4490-a3b1-ce8eae01df15<T>ODKTOOLS 2.0<T>assistant001<T>LB_Sequia_MAG_20190123<T>2022-03-01 19:41:34<T>9.907472134 -85.409352785 103.794494045 24.0<T>-85.409352785<T>9.907472134<T>103.794<T>24.000<T>1

Im trying to import it using a dictionary like:

dictionary using "maintable.raw" {
strL surveyid
strL originid
strL _submitted_by
strL _xform_id_string
strL _submitted_date
strL _geopoint
float _longitude
float _latitude
float _elevation
float _precision
long _active
}

When I run it I get:
. infile using "maintable.dct"

dictionary using "maintable.raw" {
strL surveyid
strL originid
strL _submitted_by
strL _xform_id_string
strL _submitted_date
strL _geopoint
float _longitude
float _latitude
float _elevation
float _precision
long _active
}


'19:41:34' cannot be read as a number for _longitude[1]
(1 observation read)

The infile command is using tab and spaces to separate the variables. How can I indicate to just use tab?

[William Lisowski]

I think you will be be better off using import delimited to import your data. The infile command is not flexible enough to handle strings with embedded spaces that are not surrounded with quotation marks. Perhaps import everything as strings, and then rename variables and destring variables meant to be float.