Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Import CSV Comma Problem

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Import CSV Comma Problem

    I have a csv file I am trying to import using the Import Operation in Alpha. My problem is some of the data, enclosed in quotes, contains commas. I need these comma's to be ignored because it is in quotes.

    Here is an example...

    1234,06/07/2010,"SMITH, JOHN","My description"

    The name, which I want to be imported as SMITH, JOHN is being imported as "SMITH for one field and JOHN" as the second field.

    Any suggestions? Am I missing something?

    By the way, I do have a workaround in place to import this as an excel file using the AlphaDAO Import Genie. However, it would be nice if the CSV import worked for this so I didn't have convert it into an Excel file.

    #2
    Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

    Originally posted by NICKI004 View Post
    ...
    Here is an example...

    1234,06/07/2010,"SMITH, JOHN","My description"

    The name, which I want to be imported as SMITH, JOHN is being imported as "SMITH for one field and JOHN" as the second field.
    Hmm, I created a test csv file containing just your example. It imports just as you say you want it to. Maybe there is something else going on with your real file? Or, what A5 build are you using?

    Raymond Lyons
    Last edited by Raymond Lyons; 06-10-2010, 02:03 PM.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

      Hi Nicki -

      Usually the producer of the CSV file will put quotes around all fields, not just selected fields. Can you ask for that?
      -Steve
      sigpic

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

        Nicki

        The first thing I do in this situation is to re-export the data and use a tilde as the field separator.

        If you can't do that, do you have the qualifier as "

        Also are you using the genie or the operation card to build the import?
        Al Buchholz
        Bookwood Systems, LTD
        Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

        Occam's Razor - KISS
        Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
        Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
        When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
        "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
        Albert Einstein

        http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

          FYI, my test file was exactly as your (his/her) example and I used the genie to build the import in my test. Came out just as you (he/she) desired.

          Raymond Lyons

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

            Originally posted by Steve Workings View Post
            Hi Nicki -

            Usually the producer of the CSV file will put quotes around all fields, not just selected fields. Can you ask for that?
            FWIW, it's been my experience that quotes around text fields only works best. I prefer to have Numeric and Date fields left unquoted - like the example. That way it's clear whether something is supposed to be text, date, or number.

            I suspect Al's right and the qualifier is missing. (See attachment.)

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

              The test I gave DID work for me as well. The view of how the data will import is flawed I think, as it displays differently that it actually imports. However, the actual file I am trying to import contains quotes and comma's within tha acual ONE field I want imported. I'm thinking this may be unavoidable.

              Ex:

              1234,06/07/2010,"SMITH, JOHN","This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36"", 50/cs",1,Case

              The item description needs to come in as:
              This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36"", 50/cs
              Then...
              1 as a new field
              Case as a new field


              But it comes in as:
              This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36""
              Then....
              50/cs as a new field.
              1 as a new field
              Case as a new field


              As I said, I think this is something that is unavoidable, especially if a product description requires the quotes and comma's to be included inside the description itself

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

                Originally posted by NICKI004 View Post
                The test I gave DID work for me as well. The view of how the data will import is flawed I think, as it displays differently that it actually imports. However, the actual file I am trying to import contains quotes and comma's within tha acual ONE field I want imported. I'm thinking this may be unavoidable.

                Ex:

                1234,06/07/2010,"SMITH, JOHN","This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36"", 50/cs",1,Case

                The item description needs to come in as:
                This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36"", 50/cs
                Then...
                1 as a new field
                Case as a new field


                But it comes in as:
                This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36""
                Then....
                50/cs as a new field.
                1 as a new field
                Case as a new field


                As I said, I think this is something that is unavoidable, especially if a product description requires the quotes and comma's to be included inside the description itself
                Can you have the qualifier changed from a double to a single quote? As in:
                1234,06/07/2010,'SMITH, JOHN','This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36"", 50/cs',1,Case
                Then the genie would produce what is in the attachment, which I think is what you desire.

                Raymond Lyons

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Import CSV Comma Problem

                  Originally posted by NICKI004 View Post
                  But it comes in as:
                  This is an item, Product name, Something else, 30"" x 36""
                  Then....
                  50/cs as a new field.
                  1 as a new field
                  Case as a new field


                  As I said, I think this is something that is unavoidable, especially if a product description requires the quotes and comma's to be included inside the description itself
                  That sounds like a bug in the import routine to me. It should know that "double double" quotes are internal quotes and it should be looking for another single quote later on. (or a triple double quote at the end of the character string - which is really a double double quote followed by a single double quote - confused yet?)

                  It seems to me that it's getting confused by the comma immediately after the double double quote. Try adding a random character before the comma and see what happens. I bet it works.

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X