# Using Excel, can I extract specific items from this terrible data file? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113 "2021-05-14T21:24:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/21 "2021-05-14T22:10:13Z")
No, it’ll likely be a bit messy when extracted as a CSV with the newlines and everything. But if someone was familiar with the Unix text processing tools like sed, grep, awk and the shell, it would be relatively easy to pull out the desired fields. It looks like the resulting CSV would have one attribute per line, which would be relatively easy to work with in those Unix tools. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/22 "2021-05-14T22:10:15Z")
Omg that is great, thanks. (Excellent username, btw) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/23 "2021-05-14T22:46:06Z")
To me, this project positively screams for FileMaker Pro. Import, script the handling of the results to write out sensibly, export to sensible xlsx file. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/24 "2021-05-14T22:55:14Z")
I’m now curious how this could possibly be used if you are simply pulling out the bolded portions. Nothing looks proprietary, so if you’re able to share it would be appreciated. I’m trying to understand how, for example, six rows with the value “Indiana” could be useful without further context. Is it the city of Indiana, IA, the county of Indiana, PA, or the state of Indiana, or some combination of all three? It appears that you are simply generating a list of place names with zero context. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/25 "2021-05-14T23:00:20Z")
I’m not really looking for Indiana. I have made up data involving states, cities and counties to make it a little easier to read. Really, what I’m looking for is different categories and hierarchies of cost objects with names that wouldn’t necessarily make any sense to someone who doesn’t use this particular system. My real purpose is to compile a list of employees and the payroll cost objects to which they are assigned, whether those cost objects are at the “State,” “City”, or “County” level. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/26 "2021-05-15T00:14:05Z")
Thanks again, everyone. Extremely helpful. Consider it solved. ---
**Author:** ![Ziberian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/919ad9/32.png) [@Ziberian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ziberian)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/27 "2021-05-15T20:11:14Z")
If you have any experience with VBA, or are interested in learning, this would be fairly simple with VBA. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/28 "2021-05-16T12:19:04Z")
Dare I ask what “ERP” stands for? I know of one thing that acronym can mean, but it doesn’t usually involve a “system”, nor “generating reports”. At least, I think it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113/29 "2021-05-16T12:29:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Dare I ask what “ERP” stands for? “Erotic roleplay”. Although I rather doubt it means that in this context. 🤔 In this case, I assume it’s “Enterprise Resource Planning”. > **[Enterprise resource planning](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning)** > > Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software—typically a suite of integrated applications—that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities. ERP systems can be local-based or cloud-based. Cloud-based applications have grown in recent years due to the increased e... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-excel-can-i-extract-specific-items-from-this-terrible-data-file/942113.md?page=1)