Importing and exporting data

Sometimes you send data to a file knowing that it will be used later by an ABL procedure. If so, then you also know that the data file must be in standard format with character fields surrounded by quotes. Therefore, instead of just redirecting the output to the file and using the DISPLAY statement to send output to that file, you might use the EXPORT statement.

Note: Do not confuse the EXPORT statement with the EXPORT method of the SESSION handle. The EXPORT statement converts data from one format to another while redirecting it. The EXPORT method of the SESSION handle adds procedure names to the export list (a list of procedures a requesting procedure can access) of a OpenEdge application server.