Excel ODBC Query - trying to find out what YY% means

[bordway]

Hi,

Anybody know what yy% could be in Excel?
Here it is in context:

SELECT Part.Description
FROM Part
WHERE Description Not Like 'yy%'

Thanks in advance for any help/insight.

Bordway


FWI...
Reason... I'm converting old Excel spreadsheets that connect to an ERP system via ODBC.
Upgraded to ERP system where ODBC isn't available.




Bruce O

 

[dhookom]

This query will select all Part.Description from the table Part where the Description does not begin with 'yy'.

I expect someone is using the description column to mark specific parts as inactive or obsolete.

Duane
Hook'D on Access
MS Access MVP

 

[Andrzejek]

% is a wild card in Oracle, same as * in Access

Have fun.

---- Andy

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

 

[SkipVought]

BTW, this is not specifically an Excel question, but a query SQL code question.

Furthermore, relying on a data in an uncontrolled field, which seems the Description field might be, is not a particularly reliable choice to make.

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]

 

[bordway]

Thanks,

You are correct, now I see there are descriptions that begin with YY.
Since I don't use Excel that much, I guess I was overthinking.

Bruce O

 

[bordway]

>>this is not specifically an Excel question, but a query SQL code question.
Noted, one of those days... I just happened to be in Excel while looking at the select statements.

>>Description field might be, is not a particularly reliable choice to make.
Correct, this is a legacy convention on a twenty year old system.
Someone started to key off of this field and it just went on forever.
The description is not used as the key in the new system but.. I still had needed to know so I could convert the old Excel spreadsheets.

thanks again

Bruce O

 

[SkipVought]

Not knowing what ERP and what reporting requirements you might have with this workbook, but in some ERP systems like SAP, you might have associated, a Business Objects or some other reporting application from wich a 'report' could be scheduled that could be exported to some network location, and your QUERY in Excel could be modified and redirected to read that exported file rather than the previous legacy database/table(s).

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]

 

[dhookom]

Skip,
I have seen this type of "Description" field usage in a number of legacy systems. They don't seem to have a reliable method for marking records as inactive. This forces these kludges which are less than desireable. Maybe the "Upgraded ... ERP system" will handle this more reliably.

Duane
Hook'D on Access
MS Access MVP

 

[SkipVought]

...and piggy backing on Duane's observation, in the new ERP system, look for a more reliable way to determine a filtering criteria, that would be a system controlled ID field(s) of some sort, not something that a user can FAT FINGER an error in an uncontrolled field..

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]