Quantum can deal with compressed data files whose file names end with a .Z suffix. If you have a data file of this type, there is no need to specify the suffix on the command line. Quantum always checks first for a file with the exact name you typed on the command line. If it cannot find this file, it makes a second search for that file with a .Z suffix.

Quantum can also cope with files that start with records you want to ignore, or in which records are not terminated by a new-line character. These are referred as non-standard data files. If you have a file of this type, create a dummy data file and enter the name of that file on the quantum command line. For more information about dummy data files see Reading non-standard data files.