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When you have selected an ASCII data file, the first few lines of the data will be visible on the Main Menu
Data Input screen, and you will be able to examine how many header rows there are, if any, and what kind
of date and data format the file is using. The Techsignal™ program will automatically read these
parameters, so this visual check is for you to understand the format details your data are in.
Manually Inputting ASCII Data
The only data file you can manually open and input data into, without special programs, is an ASCII file.
Microsoft Word is the best program to use, with the Show/Hide feature turned on to show all hidden
characters. Text editor programs like Word Pad and Notepad are older programs than Microsoft Word and
both add assembly language junk to the files. When those various characters appear at the end of the file,
the Techsignal™ program, which reads data to the end of the file, finds, instead, confusing junk characters,
the file stops loading into the Techsignal™ program.
You should manually replace some of the more common characters rather than using the delete key. Go to
Edit – Replace -- type in “^t” (omit “ marks) for the Tab key (tabs show up as right arrows), and replace with
“, “ (that’s comma and a space, omit the “ marks). Simply use the delete key to remove any ¶ characters
you see on a separate line(s) at the end of the file. Once you’ve added your data or made data changes to
the file using Microsoft Word, save the file in plain.txt formatting. Do not use the Unicode encoding.
CSI and Metastock are non-ASCII binary files and you can’t read them (makes sense with your eyeball)
with a text editor.
Date Format
The Techsignal™ program accepts the following ASCII date formats using numbers, letters and hyphens
(see Graph Defaults from the analysis screen for these options). The default format is MMM-DD-YY:
[Note MMM means spell out the first 3 letters; MM or DD means always display 2 digits; M or D by
itself means display 1 digit or 2 digits if there are 2 digits to display; YY means last two digits of the
year]
MM-DD-YY (e.g., 01-01-06)
M-D-YY (e.g., 1-1-06)
MMM-DD (e.g., Mar-26)
MMM-DD-YY (e.g., Mar-26-06)
MMM-D (e.g., Mar-12)
MM-DD (e.g., 01-07)
M-D (e.g., 1-6 or 11-21)
MMM (e.g., Mar or Jul)
M-YY (e.g., 1-06 or 11-06)
MM-YY (e.g., 02-06)
MMM-YY (e.g., Mar-06)
M-YYYY (e.g., 1-2006 or 11-2006)
MMM-YYYY (e.g., Mar-2006)
YYYY (e.g., 2006)
1.10 Select Your Data to Load
When you first load the Techsignal™ program, some sample data in CSI format (a F001.dta type file; see
section 2.2.3 Data Types) will be loaded into the C:\FCSTS\Cyc\Sample folder and a Sample.txt portfolio will
appear in the Portfolios Available grid on your first Techsignal™ screen, the Main Menu Data Input screen.
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