Conversion from flat file to mySQL

Hi,
I've inherited a website which has utilized Perl authentication and a
'hardcoded' directory (the names, addresses, etc., have been manually
updated on the directory.pl page in a very long text string). I'm
looking forward to getting away from this and moving the data to
mySQL. My question is: what is the most time effective way of
converting this text string to the desired columns/rows of a table? I
had been thinking of using Excel with regular expressions, although
I'm a little rusty in those areas. Any recommendations/resources
would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Louis

"ll" <barn104_1999@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4931a37e-9b17-4bdd-b829-0f03c3fc6133@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
> I've inherited a website which has utilized Perl authentication and a
> 'hardcoded' directory (the names, addresses, etc., have been manually
> updated on the directory.pl page in a very long text string). I'm
> looking forward to getting away from this and moving the data to
> mySQL. My question is: what is the most time effective way of
> converting this text string to the desired columns/rows of a table? I
> had been thinking of using Excel with regular expressions, although
> I'm a little rusty in those areas. Any recommendations/resources
> would be greatly appreciated!
> Thanks,
> Louis

Hi Louis,

So glad to hear you are going to do this right. Big question, what are the
desired rows and columns, and what does the text string look like? I have
had many clients use Excel for just such purposes.

Evan

On Mar 25, 6:00 pm, "Evan Keel" <evank...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> "ll" <barn104_1...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:4931a37e-9b17-4bdd-b829-0f03c3fc6133@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Hi,
> > I've inherited a website which has utilized Perl authentication and a
> > 'hardcoded' directory (the names, addresses, etc., have been manually
> > updated on the directory.pl page in a very long text string). I'm
> > looking forward to getting away from this and moving the data to
> > mySQL. My question is: what is the most time effective way of
> > converting this text string to the desired columns/rows of a table? I
> > had been thinking of using Excel with regular expressions, although
> > I'm a little rusty in those areas. Any recommendations/resources
> > would be greatly appreciated!
> > Thanks,
> > Louis
>
> Hi Louis,
>
> So glad to hear you are going to do this right. Big question, what are the
> desired rows and columns, and what does the text string look like? I have
> had many clients use Excel for just such purposes.
>
> Evan


Hi Evan,
Thanks for your reply. There is at least a space between each field
in the text string.

Here are the desired columns for the db:
ID, lastName, firstName, address, city, state, zip, phone, email,
email2, birthday, activeMember
All are text, with the exception of ID (int(11)), birthday (date),
activeMember(int(1))

The text string looks like this:
$htmltopage = <<"endofhtml";
<font color="Black">

<h2 align="left"><a href="#top"<a name="A">A</a></h2>
<p align="left">
<B>LAST, </B> FIRST - 5555 DRIVE SOMEWHEREVILLE SD 55555 USA
555-555-5555 <br>

On Mar 26, 11:28 am, ll <barn104_1...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Mar 25, 6:00 pm, "Evan Keel" <evank...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > "ll" <barn104_1...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:4931a37e-9b17-4bdd-b829-0f03c3fc6133@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
>
> > > Hi,
> > > I've inherited a website which has utilized Perl authentication and a
> > > 'hardcoded' directory (the names, addresses, etc., have been manually
> > > updated on the directory.pl page in a very long text string). I'm
> > > looking forward to getting away from this and moving the data to
> > > mySQL. My question is: what is the most time effective way of
> > > converting this text string to the desired columns/rows of a table? I
> > > had been thinking of using Excel with regular expressions, although
> > > I'm a little rusty in those areas. Any recommendations/resources
> > > would be greatly appreciated!
> > > Thanks,
> > > Louis
>
> > Hi Louis,
>
> > So glad to hear you are going to do this right. Big question, what are the
> > desired rows and columns, and what does the text string look like? I have
> > had many clients use Excel for just such purposes.
>
> > Evan
>
> Hi Evan,
> Thanks for your reply. There is at least a space between each field
> in the text string.
>
> Here are the desired columns for the db:
> ID, lastName, firstName, address, city, state, zip, phone, email,
> email2, birthday, activeMember
> All are text, with the exception of ID (int(11)), birthday (date),
> activeMember(int(1))
>
> The text string looks like this:
> $htmltopage = <<"endofhtml";
> <font color="Black">
>
> <h2 align="left"><a href="#top"<a name="A">A</a></h2>
> <p align="left">
> <B>LAST, </B> FIRST - 5555 DRIVE SOMEWHEREVILLE SD 55555 USA
> 555-555-5555 <br>


To clarify that text string, here's a clearer version:
<B>LAST, </B> FIRST - 5555 DRIVE SOMEWHEREVILLE SD 55555 USA
555-555-5555 <br>