placenames from first three letters

[GlennC]

Hello,

After importing some excel files I get a place-name field which is the first three letters of place names; there are about 50 in all. What would be the best way to store a list of the full names, and have them automatically displayed based on the initial three letters, or do I have to lookup an 'If' formula with 50 possibilities??

Glenn

[Lee Smith]

Hi Glenn,

If I'm understanding you correctly, can't you do a simple sort on the field?

Lee

[GlennC]

Hi Lee,

I don't think I understand what will a sort do here. At the moment I have after importing the first three letters of a place name eg 'bri'. Now I know this means "Brisbane", but the full name has been parsed out in the import process. So I want it to look somewhere to know that "Bri" means "Brisbane", and to display the full name, and to do this for around 50 possible names in total.

I know I could create a simple calculated field ie. Case("Bri","Brisbane", etc etc, but there would be 50 possibilities in that calculation. My question is simply, is there are simpler/better way?

[Lee Smith]

I think I more fully understand what you are trying to say now.

If I am, you are saying that the Full Name is not available to you, only the Three letters?

If that is true, it is my opinion that you will have to do a reverse calculation, either by replace function, or case as you stated, that is unless I have missed something

Lee

[GlennC]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for all your help - here and elsewhere

Glenn

[Philland]

If these locations arre fairly static, always the same places, perhaps you could set up a separate table (file) of the locations and their abreviations and then set up a relationship based on the three letter abreviation in each file and then display the related city.

Phil