(no subject)

[senoritafish]

Do you ever notice that when doing something mindless, your body takes over, you get into a rhythm, and you don't even realize what you are doing? When you do, that's when you're sure to slip up and make a mistake.

I probably mentioned this before; I have a database that has to be converted from Access into dBASE because the summary programs are still in dBASE. There is one field consisting of a series of digits that Access squishes all together when it actually needs spaces in it. Before I can run the program I have to manually add all the spaces (I'm sure there's a command I could use, but even after much digging I can't find it). The program hasn't been upgraded yet because it's somewhat complicated (although some you could probably handle it in a snap), and V. and I. are still Access novices.

Anyway, it gets to be sort of like a dance. The rhythm varies depending on where the spaces need to entered. One thru nine - Space, space, right, space, right, space, down, home, repeat. Ten thru twenty-five - Space, space, right, space, down, home, repeat. You find the beat, and the fingers move of their own volition. At least until the numbers shift (99 to 100), or the song you're listening to changes beats, or you start going a little too fast and hit overtype or page down instead of home. Whoops. Thank goodness for the Undo command.

I only do this myself, instead of delegating it because I know it would drive anyone else absolutely bats. I sometimes wonder if I've gone into the right field. I don't really mind doing repetetive, monotonous things for long stretches - maybe I would have been better suited to an assembly line. Then again, I don't think I'd enjoy doing this for eight hours a day, day in, day out either.

Ah well, back to it. I was just resting my eyes for a minute. Space, space, right, space, right, space, down, home, space, space, right, space, right, space, down, home, space, space, right, space, right, space, down, home, repeat ad infinitum...

Comments

[dipster.livejournal.com]

Dang.. that is the epitome of Boring...

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Oh I know. I just like to put on some tunes and let my mind wander while I'm doing it. It's kinda like when you drive to work, but once you're there, you don't remember making the drive.

And I only have to do it once every six months or so, so it's not that bad. ;)

How's Shiitake?

[dipster.livejournal.com]

She's still a little Shiit. :) She decided that 4am was a good time to get up.

[metalmensch.livejournal.com]

Hmm, you could run the field through an input filter with dashes instead of spaces, and then paste it into excel and then do a find/replace the dashes for spaces, and then paste into dbase. That should work if you don't want to sit there the entire time. Alternately, you could probably use remotekeys(free macro program) to program some of your more repetetive keys so you don't have to do anything more than click the mouse once.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

I had to wait until I could get back to work to try this out - I don't have Access at home.

I went and looked up remotekeys; that looks very handy, and I'll try to use it for next time.

For the rest, I get everything there except the first step (although my primitive dBASE 5.5 doesn’t allow pasting, I could easily append it using a query). However, I’m not sure how I could use an input form because there are spaces in the middle of the digits. What it really is, is three numeric fields (3 digits, 3 digits and two digits) that have been combined into one right justified 9 character field. So, if I substitute a dash for a space:
original fields: A, B, C in dBase should be AAAABBBCC

If A=1 B=1 C=1
is 111 in Access, should be ---1--1-1,

A=10 B=10 C=10
is 101010 in Access, should be --10-1010

and
A=600 B=599 C=2
6005992 should be -600599-2

The number of dashes shifts, so I'm not sure how an input filter would work. I tried using one in Design view and kept getting dashes in the wrong places. Maybe you could give me some steps?

In any case, I’m almost done with it, but it’d be good to keep in mind for next time. Hopefully before we have to do it again it'll be converted, and I won't have repeat this exercise.