In many cases, the simplest way to make your data available for analysis by popular PC tools is to output it in CSV format. Although this is a programming task, it is a very simple one. To make it even simpler, ASB includes statements that further simplify the task of outputting comma delimited (WRITECD) or tab delimited (WRITETD) files. Such files can then be automatically transferred to the PC (if necessary) and then read directly by many popular PC data-analysis utilities (such as Excel).

Many people instinctively shy away from this suggestion, either out of the belief that converting data files to CSV format is complex or that it would take a long time to run the conversion. Both of these beliefs are misguided. In all but the most extreme cases, a utility to create a CSV version of an existing data file should take under an hour to write and only a few seconds to run. It often takes longer for the utility program (such as Access or Excel) to launch than it does to create the CSV data.