Importing Excel File- Too Many Records ??

[mrclark]

Howdy...I'm a newbie to both FileMaker and this Site....I can guarantee I'll be coming back here because I enjoy using FileMaker.

The problem I'm experiencing has to do with an Excel Format problem.

The data I have looks like this....

That is how it downloads.....the list goes down the page and is one "record" with the next page being the next record......all of these records have the same "labels" which repeat in every record.....

problem one: When I import this into filemaker....filemaker recognizes "each line" as a "separate record".......IT ISN'T!!!

What I'd like to do is have the records fill going across and feed into columns like this:

any ideas?

[Lee Smith]

Hi and welcome,

Without looking at your raw data, and if I'm understanding your question, you are saying that Row 1, 2, 3, etc are all part of the one record, and you have several pages. If this is the case, I would recommend that you clean your file up first in a text editor before trying to use Excel or FileMaker. I use BBEdit for this purpose, as it is easy to do multiple changes at the same time.

Keep in mind that FileMaker imports text files as either "Tab" or "Comma" Delimited files. After I clean them up, I do look at them in Excel because it is a lot easier to see missed place tabs and returns. Also, you can save your files in a couple of different formats that can be read be FileMaker and other programs.

HTH

Lee

p.s. BBEdit is a Mac product, but there is an equivalent in Windows, I just can't think of the name of it right now. (and *no* it isn't Word).

[mrclark]

[Lee Smith]

Huh??

Nothing is showing in this post?

Lee

[mrclark]

What is shown in the picture above is one property record.

Problem One:

When I import this into Filemaker....it imports as however many records as there are lines. As this is really only one property record to me....I'd like all the information to show up as one record in FileMaker....it isn't doing that..this one shows up as about 36 records, which means that Filemaker is reading each line as a record.

Problem 2:

All of my records are layed out in "page format" like the one above. I'd like them to be formatted on a line like the one below that I'll post next. Is there a way (other than manually cleaning the text file by file) that I can set up a "formater or cleaner" in filemaker. A template to use to import this data. I'd like to do that because I'll be importing data on a monthly basis of upwards of 8,000 property records........obviously I need to automate the process.

[kenneth2k1]

I can see your spreadsheet. If this is how records are kept, you will have to do some major cleanup to get FM to recognize it. This is because FM (and just about every db program i've ever worked with) recognizes rows as records and columns as attributes (fields).

Sorry

Ken

[mrclark]

Ken

Thank you for the reply....I guess I need to somehow format my Excel file as a "template" to copy over from one page to another....and specify the columns and data to follow after....a lot of friggin work....

[Lee Smith]

Why not attached a file with your raw data (just as it is received by you) make sure there is more than one record, and let us see what can be done.

Lee

[mrclark]

I'm procesing the file now....I'll upload it in a minute.....

THANKS!!

[mrclark]

Here is the UPLOAD....

Good Luck.....

ASCII Text, Columns Sep-TABS.zip