BUG: Column name beginning with a non-English or foreign character may crash E-Merge 2.0 [18416]

This article applies to: 

E-Prime 2.0

Symptoms

E-Merge crashes when attempting to merge files with foreign characters. A Microsoft Windows error message is displayed with the following text:

Microsoft Windows

E-MERGE Application has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

Detail

E-Merge 2.0 may crash completely when attempting to merge .edat or .edat2 files containing a foreign character as the first letter of a column name. Column names include attribute names or object names. When this error occurs, an .emrg2 file will not be created.

The following are the limitations to the names of attributes:

• The first character must begin with a letter (a-z)
• All other characters must be a letter (a-z), number (0-9), underscore (_), or period (.)
• The total length of the name cannot exceed 80 characters
• The name cannot be null

The same limitations apply to the names of objects, with the additional restriction that object names may not contain an underscore or a period.

Workaround

This workaround is intended only for those who are unable to update to the version of E-Prime that contains the fix:

Avoid using non-English characters in the names of your attributes or objects. It may be possible to include foreign characters in the rest of the name, but we do not recommend it at this time. If you do choose to use a foreign character, please preface the name with an English letter (A-Z).

If you have existing data files that exhibit this problem and need to be merged:

1. Open the relevant .edat or .edat2 file in E-DataAid 2.0. From the File menu, select Export..., then E-Prime Text. Type a unique filename for your exported text file and click OK.
2. Locate the new text file on your hard drive. Open this file using Notepad or Wordpad. Select Replace... from the Edit menu. Use this dialog to search for and replace any offending characters with suitable replacements. For example, you can replace ü with ue. Save this modified text file.
3. Open E-DataAid. Select Import > E-Prime Text File from the File menu. Locate your modified text file and click Open.
4. Select Save As... from the File menu to save your file in E-Merge format.
5. Complete this process on all the necessary data files. You should now be able to work with these files without crashing any application.