Race charts on excel?

[mountainman]

Please pardon an elementary question for the geeks. Is it possible to import drf charts to an excel spreadsheet? If so, how difficult, and how would the charts be obtained, and at what expense. Also, what would the columns consist of..I mean, how would an imported drf chart LOOK on a spreadsheet? And could I then filter the columns ? I'm familiar with excel, and spend hours typing in data for a d-base on invading runners. Would love an easier way.

[cj]

Please pardon an elementary question for the geeks. Is it possible to import drf charts to an excel spreadsheet? If so, how difficult, and how would the charts be obtained, and at what expense. Also, what would the columns consist of..I mean, how would an imported drf chart LOOK on a spreadsheet? And could I then filter the columns ? I'm familiar with excel, and spend hours typing in data for a d-base on invading runners. Would love an easier way.

Both BRIS and DRF offer comma delimited charts that can be imported into Excel. I'm sure there are a few others as well. (I'd recommend a database over Excel for what you are doing, but that is just me.) Pricing can be found on the sites. You can buy either individually or unlimited.

http://www.brisnet.com/library/newchart2.txt

That is an example of the file structure for BRIS.

[JJMartin]

I looked in to that before but because the charts are in pdf format, I could not figure out a good way to do it not to mention the pdf is secured so you cant even copy and paste unless you unlock it

[cj]

I looked in to that before but because the charts are in pdf format, I could not figure out a good way to do it not to mention the pdf is secured so you cant even copy and paste unless you unlock it

Yes, PDF is not the way to go. You need text charts.

[JJMartin]

Imo it should be free and so should the results

[cj]

Imo it should be free and so should the results

That argument has been made many times. I'm just giving the facts of how to do it, not whether it is right or wrong.

[JJMartin]

That argument has been made many times. I'm just giving the facts of how to do it, not whether it is right or wrong.
Its fine

[mountainman]

Both BRIS and DRF offer comma delimited charts that can be imported into Excel. I'm sure there are a few others as well. (I'd recommend a database over Excel for what you are doing, but that is just me.) Pricing can be found on the sites. You can buy either individually or unlimited.

http://www.brisnet.com/library/newchart2.txt

That is an example of the file structure for BRIS.

tx a lot. i'm a drf reading dinosaur and prefer drf, but the only chart product I can find on their site is single-card for 10 bucks a pop..surely that's not the product I want ...right?

[mountainman]

found text charts on drf--they want $799 for one year that covers all tracks.....but I just need mnr...

[cj]

tx a lot. i'm a drf reading dinosaur and prefer drf, but the only chart product I can find on their site is single-card for 10 bucks a pop..surely that's not the product I want ...right?

Honestly, whether you use BRIS or DRF, you are getting basically the same exact data. With BRIS, you can do an ala card menu, and I think the price is 50 cents per track per day.

I'll be happy to help you in whichever route you choose. There is a sample available here to play around with in your spare time:

http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/HTML/samples.html#ccf

It is the Comprehensive Chart File.

[mountainman]

Honestly, whether you use BRIS or DRF, you are getting basically the same exact data. With BRIS, you can do an ala card menu, and I think the price is 50 cents per track per day.

I'll be happy to help you in whichever route you choose. There is a sample available here to play around with in your spare time:

http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/HTML/samples.html#ccf

It is the Comprehensive Chart File.

many tx, craig..it IS all abt the data--not the source, and much better pricing at bris...but the file won't open on my computer..comes up as a "zip" rather than "text" file..so, i'm thoroughly confused..

[Tom]

Look at HDW. As a subscriber to HTR, I get comma txt chars for every track, every day - part of the subscription.

[johnhannibalsmith]

...comes up as a "zip" rather than "text" file..so, i'm thoroughly confused..

There are a couple of free programs out there to decompress a .zip file if that's the problem you are having - WinRAR, 7Zip, etc...

Just to see what you were seeing there, I downloaded the file, "unzipped" with the above mentioned, and there were several files to extract. The one that I extracted ended with a goofy extension - ".1" or something - but I simply opened it in notepad and it surely appeared to be a comma delimited text file as advertised. I'm guessing that if you just renamed it to having the ".txt" extension you could bypass selecting a suitable program to open it with.

I'm not much of a computer guy anymore, but if I'm understanding where the hangup is here, I think you pretty much are on the right track.

[JJMartin]

There are a couple of free programs out there to decompress a .zip file if that's the problem you are having - WinRAR, 7Zip, etc...

Just to see what you were seeing there, I downloaded the file, "unzipped" with the above mentioned, and there were several files to extract. The one that I extracted ended with a goofy extension - ".1" or something - but I simply opened it in notepad and it surely appeared to be a comma delimited text file as advertised. I'm guessing that if you just renamed it to having the ".txt" extension you could bypass selecting a suitable program to open it with.

I'm not much of a computer guy anymore, but if I'm understanding where the hangup is here, I think you pretty much are on the right track.
after unzipping, you could just use excel to open it.
Open excel, open file from the containing folder, file type: "all files", click on the bris file, the text import wizard window appears, type d,n,c,n,f

[Longshot6977]

Please pardon an elementary question for the geeks. Is it possible to import drf charts to an excel spreadsheet? If so, how difficult, and how would the charts be obtained, and at what expense. Also, what would the columns consist of..I mean, how would an imported drf chart LOOK on a spreadsheet? And could I then filter the columns ? I'm familiar with excel, and spend hours typing in data for a d-base on invading runners. Would love an easier way.

Even though others have already provided the easiest method (although at a cost) for you via the TXT import/comma delimited method, I wanted to let you know I tried many methods to do what you want via a free method. This has been discussed on PA several times in the past, so try a search to read more.
Basically, You can download the free full result charts and open them using an app like AbleToExtract professional 8.0 or similar. I found this to be the best of the many apps I tinkered with. It will convert the PDF image using optical character recognition and hence, the problem is that the superscripts (subscripts?) for things like lengths back and race times don't convert properly. It leaves a weird character in its place. Otherwise, it would be a nice free method.

[Cheap Speed]

May want to look at an Adobe acrobat Pro software. I think it converts pdf's to word and excel. Not sure of how clean the format would be. There would be a cost up front for program but then wouldnt have to pay the charge for the data. I think you can get a free one month trail and see if it works for what you want.

[cj]

May want to look at an Adobe acrobat Pro software. I think it converts pdf's to word and excel. Not sure of how clean the format would be. There would be a cost up front for program but then wouldnt have to pay the charge for the data. I think you can get a free one month trail and see if it works for what you want.

Racing data does not transfer well at all.

[classhandicapper]

I'd love to have access to a database like that, but every time I get motivated enough to start, I realize I'd way rather someone else create it and just pay for the access to run scans and do research against it rather than spending the time and energy to figure out what I have to do and then actually keeping up with it

[mountainman]

I'd love to have access to a database like that, but every time I get motivated enough to start, I realize I'd way rather someone else create it and just pay for the access to run scans and do research against it.
omg, dude..there is no heaven or sense of accomplishment like having it done...but it's just too much work typing it in the dinosaur way..

[raybo]

omg, dude..there is no heaven or sense of accomplishment like having it done...but it's just too much work typing it in the dinosaur way..

Post what you would be willing to pay for the data you need and maybe one of the database guys would be willing to export a csv file that could the be imported into Excel or a database app like Access.

What data do you need, just finish positions, odds, and payouts, or do you need the full charts for fractional data, beaten lengths etc..? Bris and JCapper both offer the cheaper Exotic Results format (.xrd) which does not include fractional data. Bris charges $0.25 per track per day, while JCapper offers all tracks all days, both card and results files for around $89 per month. Both offer archive access for accumulating past data.