Recommend an XLS to MySQL importer?

dugawug

yes, i'm a lame PHP coder...and i need something fast. i use Navicat right now for a mysql GUI and i love it, EXCEPT, i'm having one problem with the XLS import function.

let me explain:

i can run an XLS import, choose the nice "Update/Append" option, which allows me to set a primary key and have Updates run on existing entries, otherwise have them added. however, the problem is that during an Update, sometimes i have blank cells in my XLS sheet but actual data already in the database. the import will still choose to update my blank cells and overwrite my actual data. i'd like an importer that could allow me to run this "Update/Append" function but choose to have it ignore blank XLS cells when doing the update.

does that make sense? 5 emails to Navicat support haven't 🙂

anyone know a good piece of software i can just buy that will do the trick? i see a load of them but don't know what's good.

yes, i could take the time to code this myself, but hey, i'm lazy and time is off the essence...

planetsim

I dont think creating one (simple one at that) would take all that long, unless there are certain features you want which you havent specified (ive never used navicat so no idea what it has). You may want to find an open source one which match have similar features and modify it, which could take the same amount of time of writing your own.

dugawug

well, i was sort of hoping there was a little software app, with a simple wizard interface, that would do what i want.

its pretty easy:

be able to import XLS, choosing which columns correlate to which database fields
be able to add/update in one import. choose a primary key, so if primary key value is found in the database, an Update query is run instead of an Insert.

most importantly:

be able to have blank cells from XLS sheet ignored upon Update. that is, if an Update is being run, be able to make it so that blank cells in the XLS sheet DO NOT overwrite existing database data. with Navicat's importer, a blank cell in the XLS sheet will overwrite existing data during an Update. this is the key feature that seems to not exist. am i missing something?