Command Overview

The gaps command is used to identify numbers missing from sequential series, such as check numbers, purchase orders, etc. The source data does not need to be sorted. The command supports four sources of data for testing:

1. Data file in tab separated value format
2. WorkSheet
3. Selected range within a worksheet
4. Database (e.g. MS-Access, MySQL, etc)

Syntax

The command is entered on the command line as the command name ("gaps", or just "ga") followed by one or more command parameters. Each command parameter consists of an argument name, immediately followed by an equal sign ("=") and then immediately followed by a value. The value may be enclosed with quotation marks, and must be enclosed by quotation marks if the value consists of any embedded spaces.

An example of a command parameter to specify that the file name to be processed is test.txt is entered as "file=test.txt" (without the quotations). Each argument on the command line must consist of only valid parameter names. If a required parameter name is missing, then the command line will be colored yellow, an error message will be displayed on the Excel status bar and an audible tone will be sounded.

The following is a listing of all parameter values for the gaps command:

An example

The command to be perform a test for gaps on the file named \test\invoice\tran.txt using the check number column named "check number ", storing the results on the worksheet named "Potential Missing Checks" is as follows:

gaps file=\test\invoice\tran.txt col="check number " recap="Potential Missing Checks"

Output from the processing will include a text listing of missing sequence numbers, and the number of missing items within each range

The command bar to process a gap command is as follows:

Output from the command is stored on a worksheet, an example of which is shown below:

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