[libreoffice-users] Re: Was Re: Date will not format or sort when imported into calc (ods) - Databases vs Spreadsheets

Am 10.09.2012 22:30, Andreas Säger wrote:
> Am 10.09.2012 19:40, Andreas Säger wrote:
> > Base is our database component. It is very, very underdeveloped,
> > nevertheless underestimated. Even the worst database tool does a better
> > database job than the best spreadsheet can do.
>
> Since nobody ever uses Base for plain text databases, here is another
> approach without Base and without macro programming:
> 1) Prepare a sheet template and format entire columns to your liking,
> according to the incoming fields.
> 2) Open the text file in a text editor.
> 3) Copy all.
> 4) Open a new spreadsheet from the prepared template, paste and fill out
> the text import dialog (US English, special numbers, delimiter).


That was solution #1a (copy plain text into preformatted template).
Solution #1b: Import correct values, copy, paste-special numbers, dates 
and text into a preformatted template.

Solution #2: Import everything as plain text, calculate, filter and sort 
with function VALUE. Requires spreadsheet skills which seem to be rare 
these days.

Solution #3: Hit F4 and drag&drop your text file into a preformatted 
sheet. Solution #3 is what I use to do if the source data allow this. It 
is by far the easiest and most convenient method to deal with tabular 
text data in office documents. All it takes is a little bit of setup work.

Any solution that requires text-to-number conversion will not format the 
resulting numbers to your liking. So you are at the point where solution 
#1b applies.



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