Separate Cipher Files

Around the time of publication of the American Cryptogram Association’s (ACA) bimonthly magazine, The Cryptogram, a file containing electronic versions of the ciphers published in the magazine is made available from the members’ area of the ACA website.

This tool is provided for ACA members to enable this 'Digital Cons' file to be separated into individual ciphers for easier solving. All of the ciphers published in the magazine are listed in a single file in a standard format consisting of the cipher number, e.g. A-1, followed by the cipher itself on the next line. Each cipher is separated by a blank line.

This tool will read the single file and separate each cipher into its own text file with the cipher number as the file name. Trailing periods in the cipher number are removed.

Source File… - The name and location of the 'Digital Cons' cipher file. The default file path of the source file is obtained from the Options settings, Tools - Options. Note that the Source File path contains the default digital con file name.

Target Folder… - The folder to which the individual cipher text files will be saved. The default target folder of the source file is obtained from the Options settings.

It is suggested that the default Source File path and Target Folder are set in the Options window before running this tool. This makes it easier to update for future 'Digital Cons' files.

Cipher types – Individual groups of ciphers to be extracted to the target folder can be selected using the check boxes. Buttons are provided to easily select or deselect all cipher types.

Parse – Separates the file into individual ciphers. The number of individual cipher files created is shown on completion.

If any of the file names of the extracted files don’t match the source file this is normally an indication that the digital cons file was formatted differently from what was expected. For example, if a blank line is missing between ciphers consecutive ciphers will be treated as a single one. Also, where two or more ciphers are included under one name, e.g. Twin Bifids and Headlines, these will need to be separated manually.