hello all-

i hope one of you can help me with a simple solution to analyzing some data. i have some data that i have extracted from my mainframe into Excel. This data contains 2772 records. I run a Toyota dealership and I want to analyze my used car data for the last 18 months. here are the field titles (at the top):

deal #

date sold

vehicle year

vehicle make

vehicle model

vehicle color

price paid

sales gross

i want to import this data into a FileMaker Pro v7 database to be able to sort and analyze the data. for instance, i would like to be able to ask some of the questions:

what vehicles did i make the most gross on?

what colors do i make the most gross on?

how many dodge neons did i sell and what was my average gross per veihcle?

just simple analysis that might help me better manage my used car inventory as to what i am making the most money on so i can try and buy more of those type of vehicles and on the flip side what vehicles do i do poorly with to try and avoid. used vehicle mistakes can be VERY COSTLY! if someone can some guidance aimed at the very basic level i would really, really appreciate it.

i have taken some datbase courses and i have played around with Access here and there because i think databases are really, really cool (weird huh?)so i do have some knowledge of how databases work. i am just hoping someone can give me a quick step by step walk through on how to get the data into FMPro. or better yet, they already have a solution that can be used with only minor alterations. thanks in advance to you genius' out there....

john r ellegard.

"i think databases are really, really cool (weird huh?)"

You are in good company, John.

Have you tried opening the Excel file in FMP? It should be able to convert it in one step.

Here's a sample FMP7 file that does what you mentioned. Import from a txt or fmp file you created in the previous hint. HTH.

Dealership.zip