UNITAB Form Data: What a difference a Comma makes - #1 Horse Racing Forum in Australia for Race-Horse News

pegasyber

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Original Post 2011-Mar-28, 04:38 PM

On most occasions the data download of FORM information from the TABs and other suppliers, works like a charm, and one can make code changes where the TAB or data supplier won't provide a consistent data field layout ( which is much rarer these days), but every now and again an extra comma gets slotted into a data field and of course a COMMA being a "Data Field Delimiter" character, can bring the computer runs to a grinding halt.

Two recent examples in TAB supplied form data, were the data < C,H & G > in which the comma between C and H added an extra field to that line and of course moved subsequent data reads down by one field.

Similarly on Saturday an extra comma was added between the Trainer's name/s which was enough to once again shuffle the data all down by one field and totally stuff the computer run.

EG. "Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes - Flemington (3) ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The problem is that for computer data records there should be an absolute ban on using otherwise gramatically correct punctuation marks within alpha fields, especially commas; as these have an entirely different meaning within a computer data Record/Field.

Sure we can by software vet each record containing alpha characters, but how can one tell when the comma is a "puncutation mark" or a "field delimiter mark".


« Last Edit: 2011-Mar-29, 08:15 AM by pegasyber »	Logged

Jim Pike

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2011-Mar-28, 11:49 PM

Mate I understand completely everything you said what

Just I am a little too long in the tooth to change the way I do things, maybe when you can teach horsemanship to a computer I will have to change or when a Computer can teach horsemanship biggrin

what ever works for you I say!
Like the old saying about skinning that cat, maybe one day when Horsemen learn more about Computers or visa V we will have the perfect way of picking winners(just don't tell the horse) still I think that will be a sad day, the mystery is what is so great about the industry,


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pegasyber

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2011-Mar-29, 06:29 AM

No problem Jim, as this message primarily was aimed at the data suppliers and data handlers of the Racing Industry. Cheers.


« Last Edit: 2011-Mar-29, 08:12 AM by pegasyber »	Logged

turfdeli

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2011-Mar-29, 08:43 PM

I actually work with data processing and this is an issue all over the place.

Problem is comma separated files seem to have become the standard, mainly because of Excel, but commas and puncuation in strings is always an issue - especially when dealing with things like addresses. Tabs aren't much better.

I was always taught to use pipe delimited files e.g | , cause no one ever puts that into a field, in fact most people wouldn't even know where it is on a keyboard !

Surprised so many organisations use comma separated files when it can often cause problems.


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pegasyber

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2011-Mar-30, 07:58 AM

Thanks Turfdeli, that has forced me to have a re-look at how I handle the file. I used to save the file as a .CSV file after pasting it into EXCEL, and have now saved it as a .TXT File and now can see how I may be able to fix two problems in one go. There appears to be only two lines where a comma may appear to give a problem and will concentrate on adding the necessary code to remove the problem comma/s. Thanks.

So problem was most probably not altogether UNITAB's Data supplier fault; but it sure mucks the smooth rythm of the race day when you encounter a new data problem.


« Last Edit: 2011-Apr-07, 05:59 PM by pegasyber »	Logged

jfc

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2011-Mar-30, 08:22 AM

turfdeli writes ... 2011-Mar-29, 08:43 PM

I had similar thoughts about the advantages of |.

While it means OR in the C and Unix arena, fortunately not in spreadsheets.

However I can't find any way of saving a spreadsheet with delimiters other than , or TAB.


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turfdeli

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2011-Mar-31, 08:36 PM

jfc writes ... 2011-Mar-30, 08:22 AM

Hey JFC - you just made you learn something - I hope you are satisified with yourself !

I normally just create new fields in Excel, which are a concatentation of all the other fields with pipes in between and save that field as the text file.

However, just found out you can do the following :

1. Go to Start / Settings / Control Panel
2. Click on Regional and Language Settings
3. Click on Customise under Regional options
4. Change the list separator box to be pipe "|"

Then when you go to Excel and save as a CSV file it uses a pipe instead of a comma !

I do this stuff on a daily basis and never knew that till then. Who could have dreamed this forum could be so educational.


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pegasyber

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2011-Apr-01, 08:20 AM

Turfdeli said:

Quote

Who could have dreamed this forum could be so educational.

Turfdeli, yes one never tires of finding new ways of solving problems by computers, so the Forum is not only educational, but very helpful and many times profitable.


« Last Edit: 2011-Apr-07, 05:52 PM by pegasyber »	Logged

Wenona

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2011-Apr-01, 09:04 AM

I'm a complete novice when it comes to importing data from sites into excel sheets etc.

I spend a lot of my dealing with that sort of information so unfortunately I spend many hours copying data into my worksheerts.

Could someone give post a guide for dummys on how to do this?

Specifically I would love to search a dog name and import the form from this site :

http://www.gbgb.org.uk/Results.aspx

Is that possible?


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jfc

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2011-Apr-01, 11:38 AM

Wenona writes ... 2011-Apr-01, 09:04 AM

I believe I may have just answered another one of your questions.

Ironically although I was very impressed with my effort it ended up in the OffTopic Pointless area which may be invisible to many.


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pegasyber

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2011-Apr-02, 07:26 AM

Wenona said:

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I spend many hours copying data into my worksheerts.

There is an outline in a Book titled "Absolute Beginners Guide to M.S Office Excel 2003" ISB 0-7897 2941-5; pages 265-266; available in most libraries in which is outlined the steps of setting up and automatically importing Web Data to worksheets. This is possibly what you are seeking, and is probably available in any Excel text book or from the imbedded Excel search facility.


« Last Edit: 2011-Apr-07, 05:50 PM by pegasyber »	Logged

JWesleyHarding

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2011-Apr-02, 07:35 AM

jfc writes ... 2011-Apr-01, 11:38 AM

I believe I may have just answered another one of your questions.

Ironically although I was very impressed with my effort it ended up in the OffTopic Pointless area which may be invisible to many.

It's called Democracy.

If a Mod thinks something is Pointless:it is Pointless.


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