# ConvertToString issue

**URL:** <https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297>\
**Category:** Forum\
**Tags:** EDI\
**Created:** [November 23, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297 "2004-11-23T22:06:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guest](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/guest/32/75_2.png) [@Guest](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Guest)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297/1 "2004-11-23T22:06:32Z")

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Hi folks,

I am facing one problem when trying to convert a document to string using pub.flatFile:convertToString.  
The document list is converted to string, and two internal fields of the document do not appear in the resulting string, besides it contains data.  
I am working with custom layouts and created the dictionary and schema before generating the document. Also, I am using wM 6.1.

TIA

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**Author:** ![pradeep\_kumar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@pradeep\_kumar](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/pradeep_kumar)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 9:29am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297/2 "2004-11-24T09:29:32Z")

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Hi Maldonado,

Check out your internal fields names. If the field names contain any special characters the output of covertToString will be null.

Regards,  
Pradeep.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Guest](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/guest/32/75_2.png) [@Guest](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Guest)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297/3 "2004-11-24T17:56:11Z")

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Hi Pradeep,

Thanks for your response.  
Actually I found out what is the problem, and it seems to be a bug.  
One of the document fields has no value assigned, so when invoking the pub.flatFile:convertToString it generates the string with some blank fields. If I ‘initialize’ the document, using set value it just works.

Cheers

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**Author:** ![roka\_mendes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@roka\_mendes](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/roka_mendes)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297/4 "2005-10-11T22:58:46Z")

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Somebody has some idea of as to decide this problem one is a bug of webMethods?

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:04pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/converttostring-issue/107297/5 "2021-04-02T15:04:45Z")

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