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Don't knock Excel - I use it to write SQLs. Here's one I was working on today to tidy up and split a field where we had 2,500 rows and the end user didn't set maintain the data uniformly...
="update test.table1 set ITEM1 = '"&IFERROR(LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""), FIND(":", SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""))),LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""),FIND("/",SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""))))&"' , ITEM2 ='"&RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""),(LEN(SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""))-LEN(IFERROR(LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""), FIND(":",SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""))),LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(G2," ",""),FIND("/",SUBSTITUTE(G2," ","")))))))&"', DESC1 = '.' where ADDRESS = "&A2&" and REF = '"&B2&"' and ITEM1 = "&G2&" ; "
...probably could be done easier/quicker, but who cares, I got paid for it, it meant they didn't send it to the "SQL Guru" who would have taken a week to write it and would have got it wrong, and I got to play for a bit.
I'm not knocking excel at all. I have done much with it for many years (I realise I undersold myself with my 10 years claim as I've been trading for 15 and had 9 years permie work prior to that, all using spreadsheets in one form or another).
It's a very powerful tool when used appropriately. It's a very unreliable tool when used by idiots.
Lunch: poached egg and scrambled tomato on Morrisons sunflower and pumpkin seed toast (crust, very thick), bramble jelly blackcurrant jam sandwich x2 on same, red corner yog, 0.91 pints of the finest Glengettie tea.
Hammering away next door so I'll be out gardening or somesuch in the ongoing drizzle for much of the afternoon.
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