Vincent,

How big are these files? Are all the columns character? If so you can probably get away with:

lcContent = filetostr( "theBadFile.txt" )

strtofile( strtran( lcContent, chr(9) + chr(9), chr(9) + [""] + chr(9) ), "theGoodFile.txt" )

Otherwise write a little chunk of code to read the file line by line using fgets() and alines(laData, lcLine, .t., chr(9) ) it into an array, append blank and gather from laData memo

>While that did not produce a syntax error, the result is the same.
>
>I have looked at the text data through a hex editor and I see the correct number of hex 09 values that separates the fields.
>
>Question: Should there be a pair of DOUBLE QUOTES between each of the TAB [CHR(09)] characters when the field is to be empty?