Converting text file for import into AMC (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

I've offered to convert my brother's list of films into an AMC database for him.

Most of the entries are like this:

Mondo Trasho (1969) (87 mins)

or with the format as well like:

Ruth, Roses & Revolver (1987) (WMV) (48 mins)

although there's quite a few that don't fit either, which have no Year information for example. There's quite a few which are TV programmes rather than films as well, so a lot of those probably won't be found when grabbing from IMDB, but he can delete these later if he wants.

What I need to do is convert the list into a CSV so that I can import it into AMC, so I'd be grateful for any advice on the easiest way to do this.

 

[z3us]

I think you should better ask in AMC forum

 

[doveman]

OK.

 

[Dadeo]

Hi doveman - What format is the list in now? Is it a text file? html? Excel?

The AMC CSV import is very good imo, but based on the format you describe above, you will have to do a lot of find/replace to reformat the data into a proper CSV format.

So it might be easier to just let AMCUpdater scan/import the films - unless they are on DVDs.

 

[doveman]

Hi doveman - What format is the list in now? Is it a text file? html? Excel?

The AMC CSV import is very good imo, but based on the format you describe above, you will have to do a lot of find/replace to reformat the data into a proper CSV format.

So it might be easier to just let AMCUpdater scan/import the films - unless they are on DVDs.

Well it was a .doc file but I can easily save it as a text file.

Unfortunately the films are on hundreds of DVDs, so we can't use AMCUpdater to scan them.

Assuming the entries are either Title (Year) (runtime) or Title (Year) (format) (runtime), it seems if there was a way to automate converting these into Title,Year,runtime,format that would be most of the work done.

 

[Dadeo]

Actually .doc file is not so bad. Oddly I manage to use Word to convert lots of data, often using Word Tables.

For example you can convert text to table in Word using the '(' as a separator if it is consistent. Or any consistent set of characters. Then clean up the extra crap (e.g. find/replace ')' with nothing). Then you can go to the Layout menu (once you have a table) and convert the table back to text using ", as a separator, or whatever gets you closest to CSV format. You might have to clean up a bit, but it should get you close. Of course, save the file as text so AMC import can read it.

The biggest problem you have is that each entry/film in the list does not have the same number of 'fields' or data items. In some cases you have (format) and before (runtime), so your third 'column' will end up a mixture of runtime and format with some runtimes in the last column. Guess it depends which is more common - films with format or not - which way is easiest to fix that. Too bad format wasn't last or it would be a lot easier.

Hope that helps give you some ideas though.

 

[doveman]

Actually .doc file is not so bad. Oddly I manage to use Word to convert lots of data, often using Word Tables.

For example you can convert text to table in Word using the '(' as a separator if it is consistent. Or any consistent set of characters. Then clean up the extra crap (e.g. find/replace ')' with nothing). Then you can go to the Layout menu (once you have a table) and convert the table back to text using ", as a separator, or whatever gets you closest to CSV format. You might have to clean up a bit, but it should get you close. Of course, save the file as text so AMC import can read it.

The biggest problem you have is that each entry/film in the list does not have the same number of 'fields' or data items. In some cases you have (format) and before (runtime), so your third 'column' will end up a mixture of runtime and format with some runtimes in the last column. Guess it depends which is more common - films with format or not - which way is easiest to fix that. Too bad format wasn't last or it would be a lot easier.

Hope that helps give you some ideas though.

Yeah, thanks that does get me started. I don't actually have Word, just Open Office (and LibreOffice although I've not tried that yet) but it does have a similar Convert text to table function which lets me use the ( as separator.

I will have to manually sort out the mixture of format and runtime in the third column. What would really help is a "Swap cell x and x" function, which I could use on the entries which have the format in cell 2 and runtime in cell 3, but I'm not sure there is such a function.

Hmm, I'm not sure OpenOffice can convert back to text and insert , between the fields. It has a Convert Table to Text option but that doesn't let me specify a separator.

If I can't find a way, I can always take it round somewhere that does have Word and do it there.

EDIT: I've managed to do it by pasting the data into Open Office spreadsheet and exporting as a CSV from there

 

[Dadeo]

Congrats doveman, glad you worked it out.

 

[doveman]

Congrats doveman, glad you worked it out.

Thanks. I'm sure my brother will be chuffed when I show him all his films in MyFilms

 

[Dadeo]

Yea, chuffed lasts a short time, then you start getting: "Can MyFilms make my breakfast?" "Can you setup the Home Automation to auto dim the lights and make the popcorn for me? etc. etc.