Dear Alan,

> I suppose you realise that external files need to be fixed field

length char

> files only?

Yes i know that, i dumped my things into file like this:
each line in my file consists of char[19+256]
19 for LONG value and 256 for CHAR(256)

> You are talking about \0 (nulls) - I don't suppose you are imagining

that

> any old file format is suitable to use as an external file?

No, i havent used any old format of file.
Those nulls were all due to this:
Here is a snippit of my code.
long value=10;
string key="this is firebird forum";
not to dump this in my file
i did it like this:

char[] totalArray = new char[266];
value.ToString().ToCharArray().CopyTo(totalArray, 0);
char[] word = p.changeToASCII(files[i]);
word.CopyTo(totalArray, 10);
documentWriter.WriteLine(totalArray);

so there will be null chars present in the unfilled section of char array.
Like this i dumped in the file and then used as EXTERNAL FILE.

Hey i even dont know if i'm doing it all right or not..
Please do help me..