How hard would it be to code...

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Nahu1337

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
140
Hey all, question for you:

How hard would it be to code a program that would take an excel spreadsheet, and insert the values in the first column into individual text strings for a hyperlink? The output would be a textfile that would end up having a bunch of links like
Code: 
http://www.blablabla.com/updatehelpdeskticket.php?ticket=(value from spreadsheet, column a; cell 1)
http://www.blablabla.com/updatehelpdeskticket.php?ticket=(column a; cell 2)
http://www.blablabla.com/updatehelpdeskticket.php?ticket=(column a; cell 3)
Etc.

The reason I ask is because I only know very very entry level C++ and Java, and I'm not sure if it's going to be worth learning more of a language to accomplish this, or if it would just be easier to hire a rent-a-coder or something.

I could tell my initial thought for a program to help me out with all of the tickets here at work was going to be a literal hell to code, so this is just a toned down thought to try and streamline the process of updating all these helpdesk tickets.

Any input is greatly appreciated! If it's not stupidly hard to code, a point in the right direction would be great as well.

Thanks!
 
Not difficult at all. If you're going down the Java route, then here is a set of libs that can help with the Excel parsing: POI.
 
Umm, do you need a program to do it because you have many files of this format to parse? Because it sounds like you could just use a simple excel macro or like a mass insert.

For example, create a column with http://www.blablabla.com/updatehelpdeskticket.php?ticket= in every field before column A, then merge column said column with column A.

Does that help?
 
As others said, easiest way to do this is in Excel itself. Second-easiest way is to export the spreadsheet as a CSV, and then parse it (CSV has to be the easiest format to parse ever) in the scripting language of your choice.
 
Csv is def not the "easiest format ever". You've clearly never had to deal with escaping quotes and all the other nonsense you regularly have to deal with.
Arainach said:
As others said, easiest way to do this is in Excel itself. Second-easiest way is to export the spreadsheet as a CSV, and then parse it (CSV has to be the easiest format to parse ever) in the scripting language of your choice.
Click to expand...
 
If doing this manually with CONCATENATE() is more of a pain in the @ss (due to frequency or number of files or whatever) than writing some code.. enter the wonders of the .xlsx format! Instead of having to use some (almost always heavy) library to do your excel stuff, simply unzip your *.xlsx and voila, you now have XML to work with.

All of the docx/xlsx/blahx m$ office files are just zipped up XML. At least check it out for the lulz if anything, it's kinda cool to peek into the inner workings of what are probably the most common document formats out there.
 
Instead of recreating the wheel, why not just use something like Spiceworks for your helpdesk ticketing? It is free.
 
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