Hey thanks Marcus and Blue.

I am beginning to realise why it is akward to go from Excel to Access, however the calculations etc I need to do are HUGE, and I need to use Excel to do those calcs. Point is, I need to calculate answers for 40,000 race meetings, appending to Access the results after each one. Big task, I have set it all up, I just need the code to automate the sending of the answers to Access.

You are welcome Duritz.
Try here:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel.htm

The point I made with the database, I am not sure what you mean Marcus.
Mine works fine. And correct though, Access and Excel have their limitations depending on requirements.

Hi blue!
What we have here is a failure to communicate!
I simply wanted to point out, that if someone was to use Excel as a front end to a database, (which I would not do in a fit) then Access would be more suitable than any other, having a common scripting language with Excel.
And also I find that people complaning about programmers not understanding the "special" requirements of horseracing is a furphy. There is nothing special about it, in the end it all comes down to data manipulation. Ie. you tell me how to treat beaten margins and I will allocate the number of points you think they deserve, and if you stipulate any other variable that would alter these points like class of race etc. that would be taken into account as well.
In the end, if there is a problem, I think it is the punters inability to convey to the programmer what they actually want the programme to do.
Re. Price. 20K is probably a bit over the top, although some poor souls have forked it out before and may I say, doing it now.
But by the same token, for a slab of beer, I would not even turn on my machine , unless it was for a friend, but for a friend I would do it for nix anyway.
Good luck

Hi Marcus I'm Duritz, nice to meet you.

OK, now that we're friends, wanna write my code for me? :p

Seriously though, could you help me with something. I have found some code that does the job, but in trying to run it it says "syntax error" in one of the lines. If I paste the code here would you look at it and tell me why there's a syntax error, and how I fix it?

I seem to spend half my life programming racing stuff and there is one special requirement which costs me more time than anything else. The requirement is to match up the different versions of information which you get from different places. I get data from TABs, various results sites, etc and there is no uniform way to represent names, courses, jockeys, etc. One horse will be called Sheepshacker (NZ) by the TAB and Sheepshacker by a results site. It will be racing at Ellerslie or New Zealand or perhaps it will be at Broadmeadow or Newcastle. The Jockey can be Ms E Wright, E Wright or Eileen Wright or quite possibly the wrong jockey entirely. You don't realise how bad the standard of data is on the net until you try to match it all up.
Still, if it was easy anybody could do it couldn't they? :-)

KV

KV that's no doubt true - but I get all my info from a DB provider, I pay for it of course but it means I get universality. (if that's a word).

Again, what I need is just to automate the appending of sections of data to an Access DB, and to tell it to repeat the process over and over.

No,
It's all to clear what the problem is, and it is not communication entirely.

Hi KV!
Yes that could happen, although I use Cyberhorse data which is quite good as far as uniformity goes.
For track names, jockeys and trainers I introduced my own standard abbreviations, so the programme will automatically pick up the different spelling of the obviously same name! Getting data from the same source helps of course.
For horse names I tend to use tab number for identification instead, and always using racedate, racenumber, race venue as a unique handle mistakes are almost impossible to make.
Good luck with your projects! (as they say on 3AW on the morning show)

Always interesting to see how the other half are working, I'm sure we all have similarities in the way we set things up. I use the same unique key you do Marcus, Date + course + race number - I guess it's obvious really.
Duritz, where do you buy your data? I 've considered the Racing Services Bureau as a source since I get my pre-race details from them - but I've noticed a few mistakes in their free data which has rather put me off. If Cyberhorse is 50c a race I shudder at the thought of the cost of, what, 30,000 races a year? Or is it cheaper in bulk?

Nice to swap programming thoughts.

KV

P.S. Sorry can't really help with your problem Duritz, wrong language for me.

Hi KV!
I pay around $250.0 a year, (dont take it for gospel, could be a bit more or less) and have access to every race download, (5 last starts) wheather it is a picnic or TAB meeting anywhere in OZ. The five last start is almost meaningless after a few month unless a new horse comes up that is not in your database yet.
This way you can build up a DB going back for years.
No connection to them, but I am happy with the service.