Help with databases

STEVE BURNS

STEVE BURNS

Club Member
Not quite webspecific but to do with the website
Can anyone out there point me in right direction on excel
I have two sepate databases
One for the website/forum which includes usernames and email addresses and in some cases proper names and memberhip numbers
And another from the main Z Club which includes proper names,membership numbers and in some cases email addresses

what I am trying to do is amalgamate the two
Rather than do it manually that is taking ages does anyone know a formula to do it
 
Re Excel ;

Hi Steve, Try to "synchronize" if your in excel. It's under tools in xp pro . It will allow you to combine data from an offline source to excel or any other win program. You just need to keep in mind where your source data is located ,,,can be a bit of a B***h at times , but give it a try anyway. ( don't wanna make you loose that sense of humor guy ) :cool:
P.S. Kewl kolors on da smilies there Russ ! You Tie dyed ol Z Fanatic!
:eek: luvin this one ! thang oh bewty, fur sur ! :D
 
Help with (spread sheets) not data base

Steve B and Russ

Regarding the spread sheet info

I have spent a little time sifting throught the spread sheets and can find little or no common information, this is vital if you are to cross match. Without a common feild to use as a key I can do nothing with the data as is.
 
sling them to me if you like. I have been trying to amalgamate different databases created by clumsy fingered marketing thickos for decades so a couple more won't hurt.

email gio@beyondsl.net
 
Yeh I thought about that yesterday, the only way I could think to tie the two is by using member e-mails from the both, but how much you'll find is anyones guess.

With the new site *cough* alterations *cough* we have planned then it'll be in peoples best interest to enter their name (now private!) and member number so they'll do it themselves...
 
2 hopes ---- one of them is Bob the other is No

Problem with the email field Russ is that there is no consistancy across the sources

for instance

In the members spread sheet the email field contains mobile numbers, land lines etc etc

In Field F of the forum spread sheet there are some membership details ---- yeah all 37 of them

Across all of the spread sheets some of the emails addresses arent even constant

I gave it to the specialist data department at work ---- the one that manages Sainsburys, Tescos, Domino's and a host of other major databases (they do this for a living) and they laughed

Until there is a common link between one or two of the spread sheets and we can generate a key file or table structure we havent got a prayer.

Its no good merging spread sheets together as it will be meaningless
 
SKiddell said:
Problem with the email field Russ is that there is no consistancy across the sources
.....
I gave it to the specialist data department at work ---- the one that manages Sainsburys, Tescos, Domino's and a host of other major databases (they do this for a living) and they laughed
Click to expand...
Yep - been there seen it done it :cool: . Specialists often prefer to deal with the world as they want it to be instead of the world as it is :p .

Send them to me and I promise I won't laugh - or even spend hours telling you how the database should have been designed. But you might just get some usable data back....
 
Gio: Been on the phone with Skiddell and we both really appreciate the offer, any member who helps out is a friend of mine. Unfortunately the data protection act means that we cannot hand anything over to anyone apart from the committee :( Thank you for the offer though and I'd like to make use of your skills another time certainly! Hope you don't mind. We have come up with a solution that works around any DPA problems though. The DPA is great, unless you're the poor chimp who has to work with it.
 
Don't know who is advising you about the DPA, but the advice you've got is not 100%. I've been working with customer records and databases since before the DPA so I have a little knowledge of the subject. Anyhow, if (for whatever reason) you don't want to get the data worked on by anyone other than a committee member, perhaps this could have been clarified in the original post.
 
The DPA expressly prohibits the sharing of computerised data with people other than those it was given to .... HOWEVER.... all IT departments use contractors, all marketing departments use telesales agencies etc etc. Would Gio not simply become an IT contractor the Z Club committee and therefore eligible to work on the data ?

I spent years at IBM and came up against the data issue time and time and time again. For example, if the data is on a committe member's laptop, someone like Gio kindly works on it and hands the laptop back then the data has not left it's storage medium and is therfore OK. This is how IBM allow business partners to access info - it stays on an IBM pc in an IBM building and phone calls are made on an IBM phone. Once the the primary data has been collected, ie the responses to the questions then the business partner is free to walk away with it.

The DPA is very important when it comes to child protection, financial information etc but when we have a professional offering help to sort out the club's lists I for one would have no problem with my data being visible. There is NOTHING sensitive held by the club about it's members. Political correctness (and I guess strictly to the letter of the law legal requirement) is getting in the way of getting a job done.

Thanks for offering Gio.
 
Guys I appreciate its hard to tell how someone is trying to come across in a post but it *appears* from the way I just read your posts you seem to think that I'm doing a "Oooh you're not committee, oooh can't have you doing anything" sort of thing. That is not the case. I am tired though so apologies if I'm well off target.

Gio: The original post was Steve asking how to combine two excel spreadsheets. Don't take it personally, and I didn't mean to sound patronising if I did, just wanted to make it clear we do appreciate the offer and respect you for offering assistance.

ZHead: "There is NOTHING sensitive held by the club about it's members. Political correctness (and I guess strictly to the letter of the law legal requirement) is getting in the way of getting a job done."

I don't think staying within the law is a bad thing, you'll be aware of the possible ass kicking we can get from the government. It's just good practice if we start as we mean to go on. Also we don't need the two tables worked on any more as we're doing things a different way now which will work better than our first plan and side steps the DPA entirely.

You make an interesting point about contractors and such, I'm sure Skiddell will know exactly where we stand on this. We all know the DPA can be a minefield and the 8 priciples are quite open for your own interpretation. However 7 is "secure" and emailing the addresses of 800 members about isn't. I trust Gio without question and I've never met the chap, but mailing member lists around isn't a good idea.
 
True - it would be better on a cd I grant you but anyway, the problem seems to be solved as you have found another way to do it.

Please don't think I was having a go, you put a huge amount of work and effort into giving us a great forum and I appreciate it. Thanks.
 
noticed some new registerees are only putting their first name in name box when registering maybe we need a forename and surname box that both must be filled in before thier registation gets accepted
might as well try and get it all right straight away before Russ goes back to uni
 
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