Well - i'm not really porting but I'm making a copy of a windows-only app in an online form (LAMP) and the client has been using this app for about 15 years (since DOC).

All of their data is stored in a file with a .D01 extension. When I open the file I see their data mixed with tons of formatting etc.

My question is - does anyone have good ideas about getting this data out of this obscure format and into something that I can import into mysql? XLS, CSV, SQL - anything??

I would very much appreciate anyones insight.

Instead of having to do 2 things at once (making a script that parses the file and another one that saves the data into another format for importing it into the database), I'd go for trying to parse the .D01 file and inserting its contents directly into the database. How you do that, it's your job. Nobody knows what format it's in. At least I don't.

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Thanks for responding xenon but your post isn't very helpful. What I asked is what in the hell is a .D01 file and how do you get data out of it? It can't be parsed as easily as a csv, xml, tab or anything else I've ever encountered because it is some crazy format with millions of "data" characters.

I believe the issue he was trying to get across is what it is and how it's going to be parsed is entirely your problem, if the issue wasn't as proprietary I'm sure he would've lent a helping hand. Not offense intended but why did you accept the job if you didn't know how to handle the file format in the first place?

A little research brought me this: File Extension .D01 Details. I assume the .D01 you're dealing with is a Tonline DB file (from above) That's what it is.

I suggets posting an example of this file. I think you've said it's a plain text file - as there is no in-built PHP parser you have to make your own, as you would with any other file format.

This would include a file_get_contents, then looping through each line to parse it into something you can manipulate easily, for example insert it into the database.

I had a brief look for parsing details but couldn't find much.