I think you have four possibilities.
1. Excel can't read it.
2. The text file is corrupted.
3. The database program did not export it correctly.
4. The database file has problems.

The first thing I would do is use WORDPAD to view the file and
see if the whole file (or at least beyond the first 5%) is good.

If the file looks good, then the problem is with excel -- or your
IMPORT procedure.

If the file is bad, find the last *good* record and then check the records
in the database program.  See if the database has all the correct records.
You may need to compact/repair the database itself.  If all of that is okay,
then try exporting it again and REcheck it with wordpad.

Jim Meagher
=====
Micro Solutions Consulting     Member of The HTML Writers Guild
http://www.ezy.net/~microsol   International Webmasters Association
=====

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCSOFT - Personal Computer software discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of M Postmaster
> Sent: Thursday, July 09, 1998 9:11 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [PCSOFT] large text file
>
>
> I have a large text file that was the  output of a database, it is a large
> membership list, and I need to open it up and sort it, I have tried to use
> Excel but when I open it and go about 5% of the way down the list I see
> nothing but a bunch of funny symbols,