CSV
A Supplier Price List With Merged Header Rows Fixed
A price list CSV has title lines, a header on row 4, category names written once per group and a footer. Skip, forward fill, filter and check the item count.
7 min read
Tag
how-to
590 posts
CSV
An Analytics Export With Percent Signs and Dashes Cleaned
An analytics CSV writes numbers as text: 12,430, 42.5%, $1,204.50, (4.1%) and dashes. Convert them with one macro and prove nothing is left unparsed.
6 min read
CSV
A CRM Export With Multi Line Notes and How to Parse It
A CRM export has notes with line breaks inside quoted fields, so line counts and grep mislead. Parse by records, then flatten the breaks or keep them.
6 min read
CSV
An Ecommerce Export With Commas Inside Product Names
A product export writes names with commas and no quotes, so rows have 6 fields, not 4. Rejoin the middle fields from the good ends and verify every row.
6 min read
CSV
A Bank CSV With Dates in Two Formats and How to Fix It
A statement mixes 2026-03-04 and 05/03/2026 in one column. Classify each row, prove the slash order from the data, convert, and check the dates are in order.
6 min read
PostgreSQL
Storing Uploaded Excel Files and Their Parsed Rows
Store uploaded Excel files and their parsed rows in PostgreSQL: keep the original, stage, track errors, dedupe by hash and link rows to uploads.
7 min read
PostgreSQL
Reading XML With xmltable in a Real Import in PostgreSQL
Import XML into PostgreSQL with xmltable: XPath row and column paths, namespaces, attributes, nested elements, large files and validation of a feed.
6 min read
ExcelGuide
Charts From Data Pulled Out of Databases Start to Finish
Build clear Excel charts from database data: shape the query, pick the chart, keep ranges live, avoid misleading axes, add sparklines, export images.
17 min read
Excel
SUMPRODUCT as a Swiss Army Formula for Conditional Sums
Use SUMPRODUCT for weighted averages, OR conditions, multi-column counts and arithmetic before summing, with its speed limits and what to use instead.
6 min read
Excel
Creating Excel Files in Rust With rust_xlsxwriter Crate
Create Excel files in Rust with rust_xlsxwriter: typed cells, formats, dates, constant memory mode for large files, and reading workbooks with calamine.
7 min read
Excel
Reading Excel in Ruby With Roo and Caxlsx for Writing
Read xlsx files in Ruby with Roo, including headers, typed cells, dates and streaming, and write workbooks with Caxlsx, with notes for Rails uploads.
7 min read
Excel
Writing Excel Files in Go With Excelize Step by Step
Write and read Excel files in Go with Excelize: create a workbook, typed cells and styles, the stream writer for big exports and a row iterator.
7 min read