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HowTo: Data Merging question

Charles Kelsoe

August 16, 2012 20:23

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Hi,

I have a conversion in which the source data has 6 phone number fields and the target data has 4 phone number fields. Not all six of the source fields are used. I have the transformation of phone numbers 1-4 working as expected. However, I am not sure how to handle source phone numbers 5 & 6. I would like to have the process look for a blank phone number 1-4 field and insert phone 5 or 6 in it. However, I do not know how to make that logic work. 

 

So for example, if I have the following source values:

Phone 1 = Phone number 1
Phone 2 = Blank 
Phone 3 = Phone Number 3
Phone 4 = Phone Number 4
Phone 5 = Blank
Phone 6 = Phone Number 6 

In this example I have the process for putting Phone 1, 3, and 4 into the target Phone 1, 3, and 4 fields. How can I then have a process that looks at each of the target fields and inserts phone 6 (in this example) into the target phone 2 field?

Thanks

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2 comments

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  Mike O'Quinn August 30, 2012 23:04

  You could always create this logic by using expressions.  Either one or multiple.  However, I prefer a more elegant method such as using a combination of noramlize / denormalize in order to transpose the columns into rows and then filter out the rows that are blank.   Then take just the first four "rows" and stick them in our 4 target columns.

   

  

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  Charles Kelsoe August 31, 2012 02:00

  The problem though is that a mobile number may get put in a different field than the one specific to it in the target database (for example). It seems to be that there needs to be a two pass approach where the fields that match the target field purpose are put in the right place then a second pass where the others are fit into blank available target fields.