encoding problem? help needed please. :-)

[danholding]

Hi all i have been dancing around this problem for a couple of weeks now and have not got any closer.

Description: i have created a crystal report in SQL5 and exported it fine but now i have gone to open it in visual studio 2008 and it does not recognise it as a report, nor does it open it.

I created a new report in vs8 and exported it and that works fine with out a hitch.
They are both in the same encoding as far as i can see but i still haven't found a proper way of detecting whether they are in fact the same.

my second report which works fine will open in text-pad but text-pad doesn't pick up on the encoding where as with the report i have problems with opens fine and reads as it should.

this has completely stumped me and as im not very knowledgeable on encoding i am hoping that there is someone out there who will be able to point me in the right direction.

if any more info is needed or the files it self please don't hesitate to let me know

regards Dan

thanks for looking

[AndreRet]

This is a question for the VB.Net forum experts. I have asked the mods to move it there from VB4/5/6.:)

[danholding]

Ok cheers i wasn't to shore which of the two forums to post it in, trust me to stick it in the wrong one
thanks
Dan

[CodeWord]

I'm just guessing here, but if you're sure it's an encoding problem, have you tried opening it in NotePad, then saving it back out with "Save-As", and selecting the encoding there? It's likely to be one of the following: Unicode, UTF-8, or Ascii. There's a combo-box near the save/cancel buttons that let you choose.

I have a hunch though, that it's not an encoding issue, but, rather a compatibility issue.

[danholding]

yes i have tried though notepad, text-pad notepad++ all with no success.
i have written a python code to read though the file and re-write it to a new file with encoding UTF8, 16, ascii. and still no luck i cant under stand what sql5 has done to the file or has not done should i say.
thanks for the help.
dan