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stan1
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 15:39:36
We have a really big problem and wondering if anyone out there has any ideas.

We are taking orders off a website and putting them into our accounting software. When we opened up the Orders table, this is what we found:

[url]http://www.laughforlife.ca/sampledata.html[/url]

Some explanations:
ORD_REC_NO is the line that that data will appear in, so the column name doesn't actually go with the column data.

The reason the data spans across several fields is because each field could only hold so much (we're guessing that's what's happening)

so our problem is that we're trying to use SQL to write data to this table! The data is never consistent and we couldn't even find which field to put the price and quantity in (so that it would show up on the accounting software screen). Any ideas, anyone?

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 15:43:02
You haven't provided enough information for us to help. You've shown us what the data looks like, but you haven't shown us what it should look like plus what queries you are using. It would also be helpful to see DDL for the problematic tables.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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stan1
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 15:56:01
I can't show the queries since this is the accounting software database. It's all part of the software but we can see the database. the data should not be spread across fields like that. but we are trying to write data to a table looking like this. just wondering if anyone has ever seen data like this and any advice on how to go about writing data to a table like this. thanks!
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Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 16:02:42
"I can't show the queries since this is the accounting software database"

So: modify the column names and data to obfuscate any confidential information.

otherwise how are people, who give their time for free here, going to be able to Replicate your scenario, Reproduce your problem and Recommend a solution?

Kristen
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stan1
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 16:05:03
Also, it's Pervasive SQL 2000
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stan1
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 16:08:50
no, no, there is no query! The accounting software puts the data into the table and it ends up looking like that. We're trying to write data from a website into this same table. We haven't even started a query since it almost seems impossible. Just wondering if you've seen data looking like this? any advice on how to approach this?
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stan1
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 16:18:47
Sorry, maybe I'm not making myself clear. Let me start again. Say you have a website and you are going to use SQL to write these orders into your accounting software database. You go into this accounting DB and looks at the orders table and find data looking like this
[url]http://www.laughforlife.ca/sampledata.html[/url]

You realize data spans across fields since the fields can only hold so much data (so you guess). what is your next step?
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jsmith8858
Dr. Cross Join

7423 Posts

Posted - 2007-04-24 : 16:35:07
stan1 -- do you need help writing SQL *code*, or do you need us to come up with *specifications* for you?

Note that:

a) neither we nor you can write any code to magically transform the data without having clear specifications as to how it should be converted (in simple english).

and

b) we cannot write your specification for you, because we have no idea what you want to do with this data or what it means.

So, do you see that at this point, without more work on your part to clarify your situation, there is no way we can assist you at all ???

To answer this question directly, then:

>>what is your next step?

The answer is: Write out, in plain english, the specifications for how the data from the website needs to be transformed so that it fits the table structure (or import specifications) of your accounting system.

- Jeff
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/JeffS
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