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I don't think you'll be able to use Excel macros to do the type of processing
that inventory work requires. You need a programming language that includes
native string data types, grep-style regular expression pattern matching, and
associative arrays. It also helps if the language can invoke shell commands and
access the filesystem directly. The only platform and language I have found
that comes anywhere close to doing all this is perl running on Unix.
I also don't see the point in posting my data in a format that is designed with
machine-readability as its highest priority. The machine should work harder,
not the human. My Perl scripts have no problem reading the format I'm using and
they can automatically detect the formats other people are using. So why not
use a format that's easy for people to read. Most people don't need to read the
data into a database, they just want to find out how many 2x3 inverted roof
bricks they'll get if they go out and buy the set.
I like your ideas about using column headers. I haven't seen inventories that
put the type and size in seperate columns, but that's a good idea that lots of
people will want to use. I can't just do count-color-description alone, I need
to add a 4th column for "ID"/part number. But my inventories do start with
column headers.
In lugnet.admin.general, Steve Bliss writes:
> On Wed, 7 Jul 1999 22:33:30 GMT, "Robert Munafo" <munafo@gcctech.com>
> wrote:
> > I don't want to use tabs because [...]
>
> But tabs are better than spaces when it's a program reading the data,
> instead of a person looking at the screen. Excel is going to handle
> tab-delimited data much more accurately than 3-space delimited data.
>
> [...] The most common inventory-posting format lists Quantity,
> Color, Description. But maybe the "standard inventory post format"
> should specify that columns have *headers*, instead of a specific
> format. [...]
> So far, we've got about 6 standard columns:
> Quantity
> Color
> ID (ie, part number)
> Size
> Type
> Description (includes ID, size, and/or type)
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| (...) But tabs are better than spaces when it's a program reading the data, instead of a person looking at the screen. Excel is going to handle tab-delimited data much more accurately than 3-space delimited data. But I'm guilty of posting (...) (25 years ago, 8-Jul-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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