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Julian ParkerFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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mysql removing text from column entry and placing removed text in different column

OK Folks,

Before I start I'm still learning mysql/php and EE is helping a lot! thanks to everyone for their past and indeed future assistance.

I have a database application written in php/mysql, I need to do some conversion on the customer name entry which has been used to hold the following information "loan - <customer name> - <ticket number>"

I need to remove "loan -" from `customer_name` and need to move <ticket number> to `contract`

Example data for customer_name is;
   "loan - acme computers - 0029319382"
   "loan - freds place - 0038227718"
   "loan - big dave's hair salon - 093828232"

I need customer_name to be;
   "acme computers"
   "freds place"
   "big dave's hair salon"

and contract_number to be;
   "0029319382"
   "0038227718"
   "093828232"

If this can be done in sql then thats great, if not then I'll need a way of doing it in php, I can list the entries from the DB ok, I'll just need the conversion code.
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rubin83
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you will have to select the required data first using sql query and then insert the data fetched using insert in sql.
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Maverickerko

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Maverickerko

you have to replace YOUR NAME OF ROW with name of row where are the loans saved and new_table is name of your new created table
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@Maverickerko:
Thanks, I'll give it a go.
did you try it ???
having issues, it's turning into a data conversion exercise, I was told the data was in a specific format and there were a few entries that wernt but, as is the way of the world, the data is all over the place this is all interspersed with data that is not related to the conversion and does not need to be altered, I can filter this off in the original sql.

I have, by way of an example;
   "loan acme computers -0029319382"
   "loan - freds place Ref 0038227718"
   "loan big dave's hair salon 093828232"
   "Pink fluffy dice"
   "Rays Music Exchange"

And all combinations thereof, I may have to read up on preg_replace rather than explode...

give me a little while, I should be able to test soon.
This link might give you some valuable ideas.
http://lmgtfy.com?q=Normalize+my+Data+Base

And this book will help you with a lot of the basics.
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpmysql4/

I don't think you need a REGEX - you need to redesign the tables so that each column holds only one kind of information.  Is this already inserted into a data base?  Or is it coming from an external data feed?  If it were my task, I would spew the data out into a flat text file and go over it with a text editor, then put it into the data base in a more reasonable organization.
@Ray_Paseur:
> This link might give you some valuable ideas.
lol, like it. however, it's all about time, I'm juggling about 5 projects today, all of which I'm told are really important so I don't have the time to google/research so EE really helps, on the other hand, like your style... :-)

The modification is required to move some historical (or is it hysterical) data into relevant columns, the loan - customername - ticket is being split, loan is being moved to a booking_type column , customername stays where it is (in the customername column) and ticket moves to the contract_ticket col.

There are a lot of entries so I'd prefer to do most of it automatically, however, running mysqldump and using vim was originally high on the list, I just don't think I have the time to do it all, if I can convert some of the data before manual editing it will help.


@Maverickerko:
Sorry, ran out of time, I was having issues with the explode but that may be due to the actual data now being in the right format.

I'll have another look again on Monday.
I got it

The explode was the wrong way round, I eventually used a combination of preg_replace and explode to sort out most of the data, the remaing data will be edited from a dump in vim but I hope there wont be that much left.