MatLab for data entry?

[enwar3]

So..... I have two HUGE excel files with rows of numbers and text. One is complete and one is incomplete, and I have to find the errors in the incomplete file and fill them in with corresponding data from the complete file. Now, I'm totally new to programming, and I'm slowly trudging my way through MatLab. I'm told MatLab can perform this type of repetitive data crunching. And I would much rather spend my time learning MatLab, which could be helpful in the future, than going through and crunching data by hand.

Anyways, my question was whether or not MatLab would be the best program for this. One problem I've already run into is that MatLab isn't all that flexible with text, and my files are composed of both numbers and text. Any other methods you would like to propose?

 

[purbeast0]

this probably should go in the programming forum.

it's been a long time since I've used matlab, but I'm pretty sure that can be done fairly simply.

 

[drinkmorejava]

I'd export them as CSV files and work with them in JAVA. Of course, that's because JAVA is the only thing I'm competent in right now.

furthermore, do you even have access to a copy of MatLab

 

[JohnCU]

can't you use a macro for this?

i've had to rely on macros for a long long time at work since i don't have access to anything else.

 

[Stojakapimp]

Matlab would be able to do it, but I'm not sure how it would compare to other programs. Plus if the files are really that huge, then it could bog down Matlab quite a bit. It can be a little tricky when you're working with a matrix of different data types, but still entirely possible