Re: Basic Program to Import a CSV file

Hi Tony,

LOL. Now that you mention it, I'll admit it was silly for me to
assume that a CSV file came from Excel. But I think it's really funny
to imply that someone should buy a completely different database
product to import a text file into Universe.

Funnier than importing into a completely foreign system in order to
export through your filter of choice? Please note the resisted
temptation to reference the old "If the only tool with which one is
familiar is a hammer ..." cliche.

Given that the OP asked about importing a CSV file into UV, what would
it matter where the CSV file originated? And why would someone require
some Excel to MV tool to import a CSV file into UV? Looks like a case
of "my tool is the answer - what is the question?".

My suggestion was that if one were to bring an external application
into the equation, one which contains tools with which a MV person
would have facility might be more accessable (openQM vs. Excel as an
import filter).

- if you really want/need to use a
spread*** application as a filter OOCalc is more capable

Hey, why stop at replacing the database, replace the spread*** tools
too! Does that solve the CSV problem? No, but it sure sounds like a
plan!

And your Excel "solution" solved the CSV problem how? Why would you
assume that one would be replacing the spread*** tools? FYI, not
everyone owns a copy of Excel. Hammers, nails et. al. I guess?

and infinitely less expensive

Seems a bit overly zealous, no? A standalone package of Excel 2003
can be purchased for about $170. That's hardly a large sum of money
for software that some companies run their businesses on (no advocacy
of that practice implied), and hardly an amount to be associated with
the terms "infinite" or "expensive".

Aside from "Divide by Zero Error" how would you describe the difference
between $US 170.00 and $US 0.00? And I didn't mention that OO.org comes
with all of the applications to handle .doc; .ppt and so on but that's
probably OT here.

but:
If your CSV file is RFC compliant or even if "all fields are wrapped in
quotes", openQM has the ability to directly parse your file into either
a hashed MV file or a directory file. The directory file may well be UV
compatible but if not you could easily do a T-DUMP and simply T-LOAD
into UV.

Sounds like a Rube Goldberg to me.

Using MV tools to do a job in MV is Rube Goldberg and installing (and
learning) foreign software isn't? The fact that you are so tied to
Excel, .NET and so on does not imply that the OP or any other MV user
would be.

An openQM license is vaguely equivalent to the cost of an Excel license

Did you forget the point you just made that Excel may not be involved?

I was attempting an apples to apples comparison: if we are going to use
a third party bit (sigh, see above).

and there is no need to import into Excel; export as another delimited
format or install anyone's adware and the required transport layer
license.

Hmmmm ... come to think of it, you could even replace UV with openQM
and then wouldn't require any of those third party bits and their
complication - might make more sense than a mediocre spread***
application or "free" adware as filters.
-Tom

What the hell are you going on about?
- There are no ads in my freeware.

No they come whether one downloads it or not <g>

- The freeware I suggested to export worksheets to CSV does not have a
transport layer into MV, and neither does anything you suggested to
replace it.
- No one said anything about importing into Excel or exporting in any
other format.

As I mentioned above, you were the one who introduced Excel into this
thread - without Excel, what sense would your "freeware" make in the
context of the OP?

- You compare QM to my freeware as though they do the same thing. QM
has no Excel interface and doesn't write into other MV databases.

It does however have a proper CSV interface. And with a bit of
imagination one should be able to see that openQM can write to other
(modern at least) MV databases. For instance, I have no difficulty
using openQM's RFC compliant CSV parsing capabilities to write a
directory file that I can attach directly in D3 by simply creating a
Q-Pointer. AFAIK all modern MV environments contain this capability.

You're trying to make some kind of argument that X is better than Y
when the two concepts aren't even related.

No more related than your suggestion that your Excel export program is
somehow germane to an import CSV question?

- Haven't you lost some perspective about exactly what it is that
you're fighting for when someone already has data and a database and
you propose replacing everything they have just so they can do some
text manipulation?

Sorry about the redundancy and spoon-feeding but: See above. The
suggestion to replace the database was an afterthought. See below.

Tom, I don't understand why you feel a need to persist with innuendo
and flat out lies when you reply to my postings. This doesn't help

Tony, I have gone out of my way to honour your request to keep personal
shortcomings out of these discussions. You should at least stand ready
to reciprocate or be big enough to back up your projections with facts.

anyone here. Like anyone else here, I provide free info and some free
software. I do what I can toward the common good. When someone wants
something special that saves them time, improves their life, or allows
them to make more money, I offer to sell my solutions. There's
nothing evil about that but it seems you get bent when I offer to sell

These are your words. Is your inference of "evil" what you reference
above as innuendo? My post was simply meant to offer a solution that
could actually bear upon the OP's request.

solutions. Maybe some hatred for Microsoft drives your responses. I
really have no idea what your motivations are but I wish you'd get it
out in the open.

See immediately above. Does your love for M$ drive you to suggest
"solutions" that have no bearing on the problem posed in the OP?

What's really a shame is when week after week we see people hunting
for the same solutions, expecting to find them for free, solutions
that have been available (perhaps for years) for a very low and
reasonable cost. How much time=money is spent in the quest for all
things free? How much time=money would be saved if people just took a
look at some of the for-fee solutions that I offer whenever they ask
for help. How much money might some developer have earned in the last
year if only they would have adopted and sold a for-fee solution,
rather than waiting an entire year with no related income for some
free magic bullet? How do you help these people when you try to
undermine my efforts to provide solutions - even the free ones?

Below:
Here it is "out in the open" <g>:
People hunting for the same solutions is precisely the reason for my
afterthought suggestion of replacing the database tools.

In openQM, Ladybridge has provided a huge number of these solutions -
incorporated within the database and its tools, doing away with the
need for Rube Goldberg add-ons and the incessent re-inventing of the
wheel.

Most of these "things that should have been available years ago" are
often in and of themselves quite low-key: efficiently implemented in a
very PICK-like way so they sort of blend into the scenery. This is good
for those using the system.

From a marketing point of view this large, very efficient and useful
collection of tools has some difficulty competing with the bellicose
hype associated with some vendors here. My goal is to point out those
quiet features when they make sense.

TYM,
-Tom

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