Extracting database into spreadsheet format?

[BKarchitect]

Is there anyway to do this? Or rather...does a utility exist for this? I'd love to be able to extract all the player attributes from the DB into a sortable format.

Thanks a bunch!

[nino33]

Extracting database into spreadsheet format? Is there anyway to do this?

No, there is no way to do this (other than manually!).

[BKarchitect]

Fun! Thanks

[archibalduk]

Yes, it's possible - but only if you're happy to get your hands dirty with C/C++ programming. I've written utilities to extract various parts of the database into spreadsheet format (.CSV to be precise) but haven't done anything with the player attributes yet. It's very simple to do once you get your head around some basic coding.

If you are willing to give C++ a try then read my tutorial here. The tutorial explains how to convert index.dat into a spreadsheet and can easily be adapted for other dat files. There's also various other relevant information if you read through that thread.

Of course you can only export the data/attributes for the purposes of editing EHM. You can't go about using the data for other purposes / games as this would be stealing SI Games' intellectual property.

[BKarchitect]

Thanks archi...don't have any experience with C++ but I will give it a go

No worries about my motives, just an EHM obsessed hockey fan.

[archibalduk]

If it is of any help, I didn't have any programming experience (except html/php/sql) before I wrote the Custom Start Date Patch. It's not all that bad so long as you start off simple and then build from there.

If you follow the tutorial I posted (all you have to do is copy and paste my code) then you'll be well on your way. I'm happy to answer questions in that thread too. I do intend to post some further tutorials (such as how to import your modified spreadsheets back into the database) but I'm crazy busy with other things at the moment!

[nino33]

Extracting database into spreadsheet format? Is there anyway to do this?

No, there is no way to do this (other than manually!).

Yes, it's possible - but only if you're happy to get your hands dirty with C/C++ programming

Thanks archi...don't have any experience with C++ but I will give it a go

My apologies for my mistake...I'm glad I was wrong!
Good luck to you in your efforts BKarchitect!

[YZG]

Hmm... very interesting. Shall we conclude that the opposite is equally true? Can one convert a .csv file into a .dat file using the same kind of program? Now THAT would make mass-editing a simpler process!

- YZG

[nino33]

Shall we conclude that the opposite is equally true? Can one convert a .csv file into a .dat file

Yes! That's how the current project for updating the History in EHM works....from dat to csv, add History, then csv back to dat (thanks to Arch!)

[archibalduk]

What Nino said. This can be done with any or all of the dat files.

We have been successfully editing the player and competition histories and team records successfully by exporting them into Excel/Access, making changes and then reimporting them to the dat (and finally updating the index.dat which can be done automatically with a simple script).

[YZG]

Awesome. Where was I when it became common knowledge?? Can't believe I missed that! I'll have to try it someday.

- YZG

[archibalduk]

To be fair, you've probably been too busy running the Dabo research to notice this previously!!