DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Worksheet File Format (WSF)

Lotus® 1-2-3® and Symphony® products use the same basic format, with additional functions added at each new release. The database manager supports the subset of the worksheet records that are the same for all the Lotus products. That is, for the releases of Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony products supported by the database manager, all file names with any three-character extension are accepted; for example: WKS, WK1, WRK, WR1, WJ2.

Note: Support for this file format is deprecated and might be removed in a future release. It is recommended that you start using a supported file format instead of WSF files before support is removed.

Each WSF file represents one worksheet. The database manager uses the following conventions to interpret worksheets and to provide consistency in worksheets generated by its export operations:

Cells in the first row (ROW value 0) are reserved for descriptive information about the entire worksheet. All data within this row is optional. It is ignored during import.
Cells in the second row (ROW value 1) are used for column labels.
The remaining rows are data rows (records, or rows of data from the table).
Cell values under any column heading are values for that particular column or field.
A NULL value is indicated by the absence of a real cell content record (for example, no integer, number, label, or formula record) for a particular column within a row of cell content records.
Note: A row of NULLs will be neither imported nor exported.

To create a file that is compliant with the WSF format during an export operation, some loss of data might occur.

WSF files use a Lotus code point mapping that is not necessarily the same as existing code pages supported by DB2® database. As a result, when importing or exporting a WSF file, data is converted from the Lotus code points to or from the code points used by the application code page. DB2 supports conversion between the Lotus code points and code points defined by code pages 437, 819, 850, 860, 863, and 865.

Note: For multi-byte character set users, no conversions are performed.