Before I dive in, WELCOME to Paceadvantage.
Brisnet files are similar to but just a little different than CSV files.
CSV files are (typically) comma delimited text and like you mentioned, the top row contains column headers.
Brisnet files are comma delimited text (meaning the data fields are separated by comma characters.)
But they are considered comma delimited text files because the top row contains data instead of column headers.
Do a Google search for the phrase "brisnet library" (without the quotes) and you'll get a link to the Brisnet site in the search results.
From there, click the Datafile Structures link to see a page with links to field mapping for their various file types.
From there, click Single File Past Performances to see field mapping for the Brisnet DRF Single Format Data File.
The file structure is one row per horse with 1435 data fields per row.
Each of the data fields (or columns) are numbered.
For example, Field #45 is the name of the horse:
Quote:
|
45 Horse Name CHARACTER 25
|
And fields #210 and #211 contain Run Style and Speed Points:
Quote:
210 BRIS Run Style designation CHARACTER XXX 3
211 "Quirin" style Speed Points NUMERIC 9 1
|
At a minimum, the project your friend created involves:
1. Writing code to parse all 1435 fields for each horse from the data file, assign relevant pieces of data to variables, create significant factors from the variables, and write the variables to a database.
2. Doing the same with data parsed from a comma delimited chart results file.
3. Creating a database (which involves considerable forethought and design work.)
4. Writing code to query the database and generating reports that are actually useful.
I can tell you from personal experience doing this is a major undertaking.
I'm not the only one on this site who has done what you are describing.
There are quite a few others.
In addition to Brisnet, Equibase data is also available from HDW, DRF, TimeFormUS, Trackmaster, and Post Time Solutions (apologies if I left anyone out.)
-jp
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