Format of hst files

[Forex Trader]

Following problem;

i have downloaded M1 history which contains millions of bars (from alpari history center). They only offer M1 and D1 data as history. On Mt4 i press F2 and it only show 65535 and can only expoert 65535 M1 bars. This is not enough. 65535 bars at M1 only contains 3 months back data which is too less for my purphose. Also on graphic it only can visualise 65535 bars.

Since i cannot export neither with F2 nor with MQ4 i decided to understand the .hst file format which contains all data. can someone help me to find internal info about this format please?

[Forex Trader]

For everyone who is interested to know about HST format here example which reads it. I ll later post an update which will write this info to a CSV file

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//|                                               History viewer.mq4 |
//|                      Copyright © 2007, MetaQuotes Software Corp. |
//|                                        http://www.metaquotes.net |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Copyright © 2007, MetaQuotes Software Corp."
#property link      "http://www.metaquotes.net"

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| script program start function                                    |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+

int start()
  {
//----
   
double varray[10];
int temp[13];
   
  int handle=FileOpenHistory("USDJPY1.HST",FILE_BIN|FILE_READ);
  if(handle<1)
    {
     Print("Cannot create file USDX240.HST");
     return(false);
    }
    
  Print ("File opened successfully");     
  
  int HistoryHandle = handle;
  int ver = FileReadInteger    ( HistoryHandle, 400); Print ("Version = "+ver);
  string s1,s2;
  int i = 0;
  s1=FileReadString    ( HistoryHandle,  64 );
  s2=FileReadString   ( HistoryHandle,  12 ); Print ("Symbol: "+s2);   
  int period = FileReadInteger    ( HistoryHandle, LONG_VALUE ); Print ("Period="+period);
  int digits  = FileReadInteger    ( HistoryHandle, LONG_VALUE ); Print ("Digits="+digits);
  FileReadInteger    ( HistoryHandle, LONG_VALUE );       //timesign  
  FileReadInteger    ( HistoryHandle, LONG_VALUE );       //last_sync
  i= FileReadArray        ( HistoryHandle, temp, 0, 13 ); Print ("Array returned="+i);  
  // for (int k=0;k<i;k++) { Print ("Array["+k+"]="+temp[k]); }
  
  int exit = 0;
  int cnt = 0;
  while (exit == 0)
   {
   // read line
     int _time = FileReadInteger    ( HistoryHandle, LONG_VALUE    );
     if (_time == 0 ) { exit =1; }
     double _open = FileReadDouble    ( HistoryHandle, DOUBLE_VALUE);
     double _high = FileReadDouble    ( HistoryHandle, DOUBLE_VALUE);
     double _low = FileReadDouble    ( HistoryHandle, DOUBLE_VALUE);
     double _close = FileReadDouble    ( HistoryHandle, DOUBLE_VALUE);
     int _volume = FileReadDouble    ( HistoryHandle, DOUBLE_VALUE);
     
      string timestring = TimeYear(_time)+""+TimeMonth(_time)+""+TimeDay(_time)+""+TimeHour(_time)+""+TimeMinute(_time);
      
      if (_time > 0 ) { string line = timestring+";"+_open+";"+_high+";"+_low+";"+_close+";"+_volume; }
     
     if (cnt<5) { Print ("["+cnt+"]"+line);  }
      
    cnt++;  
   
   }
   
   
  Print ("total = "+cnt+" Bars read");
  Print ("Last line="+line); 
  
  FileClose(handle);
   
//----
   return(0);
  }
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+