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AIBU?

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Any excel wiz here? Urgent

34 replies

Anudawan · 13/03/2025 12:24

Sorry posting for traffic.

ive got a huge task of moving over 2000 inputs from one file to another, they have variable in puts, and the two file table designs do not match one another.

tell me there is another way than having to literally type out over 2000 lines of data?

OP posts:
Tikeahulilly · 13/03/2025 12:33

Can you mock up what you are trying to do and just use made up data, headings, data fields and take a photo?

Maybe then you can get a general idea of what you need to specifically Google / you tube videos etc

NotSorry · 13/03/2025 12:32

Could you copy and paste each column in the correct place rather than rows?

Tikeahulilly · 13/03/2025 12:31

Look ups or pivot tables can help you re organise data to them merge but really depends in what format the 2 data sets are in what the common fields are in

Anudawan · 13/03/2025 12:31

TotallyAddictedToCoffee · 13/03/2025 12:27

Can you not just copy and paste the cells but keep the source formatting when you paste into the new file?

Google the question, I do that for Excel and usually get a good/useful answer

I tried but I’m not entirely sure what I should be searching, I’d share the file or what I need to do in more specific detail but as it’s work related I can’t

OP posts:
Anudawan · 13/03/2025 12:30

SapphireOpal · 13/03/2025 12:28

It's impossible to say really without more detail. What do you mean by the file table designs don't match?

Is it that you've got say, name dob address in one file but second file wants first name postcode year of birth or something like that that's stopping you from being able to just copy and paste the columns across? It's absolutely doable but I don't think anyone can advise you without more detail

As in the input field names are totally different

OP posts:
WhamBhamThankYouMham · 13/03/2025 12:29

I'm very old school but I'd probably export the data to some kind of delimited file and then re-import it into the desired structure mapping the fields accordingly. I'm aware this is probably quite a clunky way to do it though! And depends on the structure of the data and whether you can find a unique character to export/import reliably.

SapphireOpal · 13/03/2025 12:28

It's impossible to say really without more detail. What do you mean by the file table designs don't match?

Is it that you've got say, name dob address in one file but second file wants first name postcode year of birth or something like that that's stopping you from being able to just copy and paste the columns across? It's absolutely doable but I don't think anyone can advise you without more detail

TotallyAddictedToCoffee · 13/03/2025 12:27

Can you not just copy and paste the cells but keep the source formatting when you paste into the new file?

Google the question, I do that for Excel and usually get a good/useful answer

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 13/03/2025 12:26

It might be worth starting a new file and transfer the information with the VLOOKUP function using one common denominator for the lookup.

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