Is Access the right software for me?

[westonreed]

Hi all,

I work as a data analyst with a company the acquires rather large amounts of data on a daily basis. Our data consists of .csv and .txt files primarily, and we use MS Excel to view and edit these files. We have over 300 different sources of the data so the headers for each source are similar but slightly different (column placement and wording tend to vary). Each file lists an address. The format of the address and under which column it falls varies. There are many other columns with additional data as well.

So with that said, I have recently encountered an issue that I am trying to resolve. We wanted to search through all of our files for a specific address. The issue is that we have thousands of files in hundreds of folders as we have been doing this for about 5 years. Searching through each file would be virtually impossible or at least far too time consuming. I need to find a way to compile all of our past data into a single database where one can search for a particular set of criteria, such as an address. Is this something that MS Access is capable of? If not, can you recommend a software that will work or is more capable for my needs?

Any info or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[June7]

A database application makes sense. However, getting all that data consolidated into one won't be easy because of the inconsistencies. I think will face the same issue regardless of software.

[Xipooo]

Hi all,

I work as a data analyst with a company the acquires rather large amounts of data on a daily basis. Our data consists of .csv and .txt files primarily, and we use MS Excel to view and edit these files. We have over 300 different sources of the data so the headers for each source are similar but slightly different (column placement and wording tend to vary). Each file lists an address. The format of the address and under which column it falls varies. There are many other columns with additional data as well.

So with that said, I have recently encountered an issue that I am trying to resolve. We wanted to search through all of our files for a specific address. The issue is that we have thousands of files in hundreds of folders as we have been doing this for about 5 years. Searching through each file would be virtually impossible or at least far too time consuming. I need to find a way to compile all of our past data into a single database where one can search for a particular set of criteria, such as an address. Is this something that MS Access is capable of? If not, can you recommend a software that will work or is more capable for my needs?

Any info or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I would actually suggest you look into the built in search capabilities of Windows. All Windows operating systems since at least XP have a way to search the text WITHIN documents.

There are also 3rd party applications which will search within the text of documents as well. I use TextCrawler all the time. It's freeware.
http://download.cnet.com/TextCrawler...-10805637.html