Sometimes data from an existing system shows evidence of lapses discipline when data are entered and edited. CSV with quotes may contain commas (lastname, firstname) or quotes and apostrophes (4' 6"). No single answer is guaranteed to work.
I sometimes globally edit the ASCII file replacing annoying characters with an otherwise unused character. I use a tool to histogram the 256 possible byte values. That way I can see whether, for example, TAB's are already in the file and using TAB delimited is not an option. Bill Cook Kent WA USA ----- Original Message ----- From: "DanielW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 5:34 PM Subject: Re: The Data Conversion from Hell > Hi Buddy, > > I tried that, but still received errors. I think it was the nature of the > data I was trying to import. I suspect it may have worked as CSV separated > by quotes, but I couldn't get Excel to do that. > > Dan > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Walker, Buddy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 2:24 PM > Subject: RE: The Data Conversion from Hell > > > Dan > Have you tried saving the Excel file as CSV and then load the table from > the file as csv. > > Buddy > > -----Original Message----- > From: Texmaster Express [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 2:39 PM > To: RBase List Server > Subject: The Data Conversion from Hell > > > Good afternoon. > > I'm still working on the data conversion routine from Hades. I've decided to > use the Gateway command since it seemed to work once before. I've saved my > Excel file to an XLS3 format (am using Excel 2002) and run the command: > > gateway import xls3 ords.xls replace orders > > I've also tried a variant of the above, > > gateway import xls3 ords.xls create x > > In each instance, R:Base returns the error message: > > Cannot import a table with 0 columns > > I've checked my source table in Excel and it reads just fine. I've also > checked to be sure I have an equal number of columns. > > I've also tried saving the file as a dbf, attaching it and projecting it, > but the Excel file has 169 columns, and the dbf file will only allow 128. > > Any suggestions? (Besides convincing our software company to use Oterro, > which I've already tried) > > Dan > > >
