Re: [libreoffice-users] Merging two different spreadsheets in Calc

At 13:30 10/04/2012 -0700, Randy Zimmer wrote:
> Caution, I know nothing about spreadsheet programs.

It's perhaps worth saying that you probably cannot conveniently learn 
how to construct a spreadsheet by asking general questions on a 
mailing list such as this.  You would probably be well advised to 
learn about spreadsheets somehow - perhaps by reading the help text, 
consulting help locally from friends or colleagues, reading guides 
(perhaps from the library), or attending a course.

> I get a .txt from our supplier every month with 101,961 part 
> numbers, prices and more.  I have a list of items we stock or have 
> stocked - it also has part numbers but also has where we put them 
> and how many we have - this has 1280 numbers.  What I want to do is 
> make one list with all the info from the two.  I have two files with 
> the data in .ods format.

You might find it convenient first to copy or import the data in one 
file as a second sheet within the other file, but this is not 
necessary to achieve what you desire, in fact: you can refer to data 
in the other document file directly if you prefer.

> Can they be merged based on the part number?  That's the only common 
> info and they start at top left on both files.

What exactly do you hope to see?  I'm guessing that your data is in 
columns and that you want a copy of the larger list - with however 
many columns that already has - along with extra columns to contain 
the information from the smaller list where a row for that particular 
item exists in that list.  You can do this by adding formulae in 
*all* the rows of the additional columns in the larger list that will 
carry the data harvested from the smaller list.  The VLOOKUP() 
function will search for and retrieve the data you need.

o The first parameter of the function needs to be the search 
criterion: in your case, this will simply be the part number - 
probably in your first column.
o The second parameter is the array that will be searched: this is 
the whole of the data area of your second, smaller list.
o The third parameter is the index of the column in your smaller list 
that will be picked up in each case: this may well be 2 for your 
first additional column, 3 for your second, and so on.
o The fourth parameter needs to be FALSE (or zero) in order that rows 
that do not have corresponding data in the second sheet return an 
error instead of a nearby value.

A few extra notes:
o If you construct the formula carefully in one cell, you can copy or 
fill it into many columns of your very many rows and the spreadsheet 
will modify the formula as it is copied so as to create a unique 
version in each cell that will achieve what you need.
o To prevent references to your smaller list data from moving as the 
formula is filled or copied, you will need judicious inclusion of the 
"$" character to freeze those references.
o With the fourth parameter set to FALSE, your formulae will return 
#N/A (meaning "value not available") where there is no corresponding 
row in the smaller list.  If you want such cells instead to be empty, 
you could use the ISNA() function to recognise this case and replace 
the error indication with nothing.

So your final formula (in the first row of the first additional 
column) may look something like this:
 =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A1;<stocklist>;2 ;0));"";VLOOKUP(A1;<stocklist>;2 ;0))
If the VLOOKUP() fails to find a value, the error value is replaced 
by a null string; otherwise the VLOOKUP() value is used.  It would be 
the reference to your stock list that would have to contain the $ 
signs: if it extended from A1 to (perhaps?) C1280, then the array 
would have to appear as $A$1:$C$1280 (not just A1:C1280).

As I say, you would have to gain some fluency with using spreadsheets 
before you could make any use of what I have suggested.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker


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