I want to import data from a spreadsheet into a Filemaker file. I understand
that basic importing from spreadsheet to Filemaker is easy and I've done
this several times but I've always imported spreadsheet data into FMP file
containing only one table.

In this case, the FMP file contains 2 tables. I want to import or map some
of the columns / fields from the spreadsheet into one of the FMP tables and
other columns / fields into the 2nd FMP table.

Is this possible?

Background:

Spreadsheet contains thousands of records. One row / record for each book
being used by a specific class at a University. Many (most) classes use more
than one book so spreadsheet will contain multiple rows (each representing a
book) for the same class.

I want to import Class data into my Class table and "book" data into my Book
table.

Any help or advise would be appreciated.

Scott C.

Scott Cardais wrote on (10/31/2005):

Script it:

Go to a layout using the first table, map the fields you want to import in
the Import step.

Do the same for the second table.

Matt

In article <BF8BE13F.C4C8%WaitingFor.SCC (AT) GMail (DOT) com>,
WaitingFor.SCC (AT) GMail (DOT) com says...
2 separate imports, first to one table, then to the other.

If you need the data to be related in some way, make sure the key field
(e.g. "classId") that you want the relationship to operate on is
imported into both tables.

It sounds like the "class" data will be duplicated many times. You'll
likely have to eliminte duplicate records in that table after the
import.

In article <MPG.1dd0191ef45e711f989d98 (AT) shawnews (DOT) vf.shawcable.net>,
42 <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote:

An added wrinkle to think about:

It is clear from your description that one class may use many books.

Is it possible that one book is used by many classes?

If the second condition is true, then you could set up a many-to-many
relationship, with three tables:
Class
Book
ClassBook

ClassBook would contain fields for ClassID and Book ID, so that each
record of ClassBook can be related to a single record in Class and a
single record in Book.

Then you would add a third import step to the suggestion given above, to
import ClassID and Book ID into the ClassBook table.

For this to work, of course, each class and each book need a unique
identifying ID.

Doing this would make it possible to track all the classes that use any
particular book, as well as all the books that are used by one class.

Bill Collins

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