DATs in Excel & Access format

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

Although once finished it will need officially checking to make sure all data is correct, or rather, in the right place

Which format has your Datasheet now? I mean which columns do you have in it?

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

Sounds like a job for DamienD me thinks

Looking through 21000+ rows of data might be too much even for Damien

[DH]

Columns = Game Name, Game Description, ROM Name, Size kb, CRC and MD5

Total 21852 Disks in TOSEC
Total 15108 Disk spaces remaining for additions

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

Columns = Game Name, Game Description, ROM Name, Size kb, CRC and MD5

Total 21852 Disks in TOSEC
Total 15108 Disk spaces remaining for additions

Any manual work included so far?

[DH]

Not yet

So long as the config of the TOSEC dat file stays exactly the same, all I need to do is import the file straight into Excel and whoopy I'm in business

Still needs some work on it though, it's not quite behaving itself at the moment, I think it just needs a few tweaks here and there

Edit: btw. It's in Excels 2007 format .xlsx but for compatibility reasons I'll convert this to the more common format .xls

[TCD]

Okay, I see Guess it wasn't too easy to find the right seperator

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

Sounds like a job for DamienD me thinks

ROFL

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Looking through 21000+ rows of data might be too much even for Damien

Correct

[DH]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Okay, I see Guess it wasn't too easy to find the right seperator

Dead simple mate use the space as a deliminator and bobs your uncle it's in, then convert it to another tab in a special kind of way 'n' you have them all in a line.

problem I've got at the moment, is to send the 0 data to the end of the list when sorted, seem to remember there was a way in the old excel, but I cant find it in this one, yet!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Correct

I knew it

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

Dead simple mate use the space as a deliminator and bobs your uncle it's in, then convert it to another tab in a special kind of way 'n' you have them all in a line.

problem I've got at the moment, is to send the 0 data to the end of the list when sorted, seem to remember there was a way in the old excel, but I cant find it in this one, yet!

Maybe I should rewrite my prog so that you can use it without .Net 2.0 Your method still sounds like work to me But hey, if it works that's all what counts

[PandMonium]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Have a look here PandMonium : http://eab.abime.net/faq.php?faq=vb_...ezone_faq_item

Thanks

So the problem is already solved?

So you wanted a list with "setname ; rom name ; size ; crc ; md5", right? First i tought you were trying to get the setname fields sepparated in diferent columns like "title ; year ; publisher ; ...", something that would be a bit more painful to do

Anyway, great that you already solved the problem

[TCD]

Originally Posted by PandMonium

Anyway, great that you already solved the problem

Thanks I will revisit the source on the weekend, just in case...
About the tags seperation : When I'm really bored I will have a look Might be quite interesting to have that

[DH]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Thanks I will revisit the source on the weekend, just in case...
About the tags seperation : When I'm really bored I will have a look Might be quite interesting to have that

It would be quite difficult to separate those tags, unless the Dat file is consistent (ie where there is no year a '????' has been added to fill the gap, etc etc)

Maybe DamienD could confirm this, then I'll be able to work on this or not depending on the answer

[PandMonium]

you are reading the .dat and passing the setname, description and rom size / hashes to strings separated with ";", don't know what happens for multi rom sets, i know that in Amiga - Games - [ADF] the sets have only one rom with the same name +".adf", but with sets that have more than one romfile you would duplicate lines for the same set or what?

About the thing i said, yes it's a different challenge but doable , (when year is unknown, 19xx is used) you would need to really look at what TNC is and learn how to parse it correctly.
Anyway due to the number of fields TNC covers you would end up with a huge number of columns (there is an huge number of flags and some need more than one column). You would also have problems representing all info since it would not be atomic, in the Field publisher for instance you could have just the publisher name, but when more than one publisher is known you would need to decide on how to keep that in just one field, so you would end up dumping just the content of publisher field to that column (one of the problems with the old tim.db was this )

anyway, good work and good luck with what you both are doing / planing

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

It would be quite difficult to separate those tags, unless the Dat file is consistent (ie where there is no year a '????' has been added to fill the gap, etc etc)

Maybe DamienD could confirm this, then I'll be able to work on this or not depending on the answer

The dat file is consistent in terms of year and publisher, but I don't think you can manage the tags consistent since they appear only if needed. So will be hard to make a spreadsheet from that info without a bit extra 'spice'

[DH]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

The dat file is consistent in terms of year and publisher, but I don't think you can manage the tags consistent since they appear only if needed. So will be hard to make a spreadsheet from that info without a bit extra 'spice'

Damn! That is a real shame, that info being separated could give us some extra search criteria.

Hmm. Think I may have a way of pulling the info using some complex formula's, but I may just be talking out of my backside

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DemonHellraiser

Damn! That is a real shame, that info being separated could give us some extra search criteria.

Hmm. Think I may have a way of pulling the info using some complex formula's, but I may just be talking out of my backside

Well I'm starting to think about a database with a frontend... Spreadsheets aren't bad, but you know a fine database is yet something different I'm not sure yet that it's worth the effort, but I'll think about it

[DH]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Well I'm starting to think about a database with a frontend... Spreadsheets aren't bad, but you know a fine database is yet something different I'm not sure yet that it's worth the effort, but I'll think about it

Tis amazing what you can do with a database. I did one for the UK's Top 40 spanning from 1956 - 2001. Imagine all that data

Was Easy, got it all as a spreadsheet first 'n' then imported it into Access and went on from there. Nice 'n' tidy

[PandMonium]

the data is consistent and follow rules, thats why i work trying to enforce TNC and define it well, and also why i'm against most of people suggestion just to make a filename shorter or so

I don't have time right now, but i could try to provide you with what you are asking, a csv with some of the Commodore - Amiga - Games - [ADF] but don't know if that would be really helpful, would end up being something similar to the old tim.db but only for games - adf dat (and if you want to try a front end etc just check old tim (don't trust your roms to it - its ugly coded / broken) at tosec.org).

What i mean is:
a huge table with tons of columns, no normalization or nothing, and all data fits a single cell. eg. Game1 (1999)(Great Publ) ; Game3 (1999)(Smith, John - Rambo, John)
would end up:
Title;Year;Publisher
Game1;1999;Great Publ
Game3;1999;Smith, John - Rambo, John

not to mention that you will also find lots of things across all systems, don't know if Games - [ADF] dat has multi image sets but if so you would also have one set with
2x all that info etc (tim.db was such a mess that would just dump all text after the 1st image details to a field "2nd Part".

Anyway i like to see you busy trying to find errors and so will try to help you as much as i can so if you want just ask

[formater]

I make time ago a excel list of TOSEC and SPS Amiga. Is someone are interesting in it I put the file in zone.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by formater

I make time ago a excel list of TOSEC and SPS Amiga. Is someone are interesting in it I put the file in zone.

Thanks for the upload formater The SPS spreadsheet is very interesting

[exoticaga]

Anyone know of a good .NET Framework converter to other language C (or similar equivalents) or other runable code. That can convert without having to install any .NET software crap.