SOTL wrote:
Hi All
I have a problem with what I am trying to accomplish which begans with I have
no idea of what I need to do technically to accomplish my objective so hence
this posting.
Basic objective is a data base of clients along with their address phone
numbers, contact names, and preferences plus other additional fields. The
eventual product of this information could be used in a number of different
computers so a client server DB such as mysql or postgres or Open Office 2
will be needed.
All well and good but there is a pre stage to the data base. In order to input
the required data I must first output it from a number of existing data bases
over which I have no control of the output consequentally there are issues
with data placement and format which is easiest to explain by example.
For example my database requires data to be in the form of:
Given_Names | Family_Name | Address_1| Address_2 | City | State | Zip
and I receive data in the format of
Names | Address | City_&_State_Zip
The cut past and text transformation options are slightly better in MS Office
than they are in Open Office so I have been manipulating this data by means
of MS Word and Excel to obtain the correct format which is painful and time
consuming as neither a word editor or spread sheet are setup with the tools
required for data editing and column formating.
I would thus like to know if anyone knows of a spreadsheet type program not
set up to do mathematical operations but data editing. The program must be
spread sheet based so that one may see the data and provide better tools
which are again best explained by example.
Lets assume that one has a matrix of test data that is 20 columns wide and
30,000 rows deep, not a small matrix, with data scattered through in the
wrong column. For example:
Given Names for individual 1 is 1 name, for individual 2 it is 5 names, and
for individual 3 it is 3 names. English names of first, middle, last are not
to difficult but sprinkle in a number of Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese
names and total confusion reigns not to mention issues with other regions.
Address can be 1 line, 2 lines, or 3 lines et.
By now you get the picture of what the data is.
What is needed is sort ability for all or blocks of data by:
1. either rows or columns.
2. by data from the front or back
Let me explain the latter.
Lets assume that you have a number of individuals in your data which have 2,
3, 4, or 5 names but all have Jr. or II, or III at the end which is not
required for this application so it would be best to remove such formality in
simplification. This feature would allow one to search by the last letter of
the field first.
Anyway by now one gets the idea that a spread sheet/word editor or database is
not what I have reference to as none of these programs is geared to
organizing data into the apposite column for usage in a data base.
Any help suggestions or ideas concerning how to procede, which programs to
examine or more applicable bulletin board would be appreciated.
Thanks
Frank
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
When I had to recognize data similar to yours, I wrote a Perl script to
"clean" the data.
--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.sxw
My Macro Book: http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/oome.htm
Free Info: http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
