Excel to Markdown

David Chambers dc at davidchambers.me
Sun Feb 2 12:59:18 EST 2014


Thanks for sharing this, Sherwood. I'd probably have exported a CSV and
written a Python program to do the conversions, but solving the problem
using Excel itself is a much better solution. :)


On 2 February 2014 08:33, Sherwood Botsford <sgbotsford at gmail.com> wrote:


> While MMD is wonderful, much of the time you want to do other things with

> the data first.

>

> My problem: I have a whole bunch of small tables I keep on an excel

> spreadsheet for setting my prices for various numbers of trees and whatnot.

>

>

> Here's a couple recipes for using excel data.

>

> Layout your spreadsheet as normal.

> Insert a blank row for the formating row.

> Create a wide column to the right of your table

>

> Each row corresponding to a table row has a formula something like this:

>

> "|"&A1&"|"&B1&"|"&C1...

>

> You will need to modify for possible grouping. E.g. A one line title on a

> 5 column table will end up being

> "|"&A1&"||||"

>

>

> In the blank cell corresponding to the formatting row, type an appropriate

> string of |:--------:|...

>

> My problem was a bit messier than that. I advertise on Canada kijiji (not

> the same as the US version) They allow some formatting in ads but do not

> have a table format at all.

>

> I needed as ascii table. The results of cut and paste from excell into a

> text processor are less than stellar, as data is separated with a single

> tab character. Anything that lines up is coincidence.

>

> My route was to take this notion one step further, and make an ascii

> formated column that would work for either MMD or for text base ads.

>

> First attempt:

>

> "|" & A1 & REPT(" ",15-LEN(A1)) &

> "|" & B1 &...

>

> I didn't like the hard coding of the column widths.

> And if your source column is $2.50 it comes across as 2.5

>

> Second attempt.

>

> 1 blank column for column I want to use.

>

> If our table is 5 columns wide, I need another 5 columns.

>

> F1 in this one has the formula =TEXT(A1,"$0.00")

> Replicate across and down as needed.

>

> Secondly, insert a row above. In this row, but the column width you want

> for the output.

>

> Now your formula for K2 will look like this:

> "|" & F1 & REPT(" ",K$1-LEN(F1)) &

> "|" & G1 ...

>

> At this point if I want flush right text, I have to reverse

> the REPT and the Cell reference. No thoughts of centering.

>

> Sample output results

>

> |Bareroot Bundles of 25 2-3 year olds ||||

> |Bundles |# Trees | Cost| Price Per Tree|

> |:-------------------|:---------|---------:|--------------:|

> |5 Trees |5 | $30.00| $6.00|

> |Single Bundle |25 | $75.00| $3.00|

> |5 Bundles |125 | $300.00| $2.40|

> |10 Bundles |250 | $525.00| $2.10|

>

>

>

> Respectfully,

>

> Sherwood of Sherwood's Forests

>

> Sherwood Botsford

> Sherwood's Forests -- http://Sherwoods-Forests.com

> 780-848-2548

> 50042 Range Rd 31

> Warburg, Alberta T0C 2T0

>

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>

>

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