is it possible to merge 2 columns into 1 in SQL server

Hi..

is it possible to merge 2 columns into 1 to hold data like this... When the user imports the file in particular file they will be

ACT_ID1 Tot_ACT1 ACT_ID2 TOT_ACT2 ..... until 15

BB 1245.45 CT some amount ....

The 2 letter character may change prob for each file.. at leat i know of somethem may change

So while i transfer the data to the production database can is it possible to do some thing like

COL1 BB 1245.45

COL2 CT 12456.12 etc..

Any help will be appreciated.

Regards

Karen

Hi Karen

You could try two inserts. Do the first one on column 1 and 2 and then do the second one on 3 and 4 in the same destination table. Put them in a stored proc that gets called on the import. You may also want to add a column that identifies which set of columns they are from.

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Charles,

Thanks for your answer... I am getting these acronymns from another dbf file which the user imports... so does it makes sense to create a table called acronymns (may change the name later) and have the following fields..

AcryID(int identity) Name Description

so when i am importing the information into the production database i can reference the acronymn from this table by inner joining it and then insert the data into the production database... like the way you suggested...

Is this approach good or would it slow down things...

Any other suggestions are welcome too.

Regards

Karen

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Anything you can do to normalize the data is a good thing, in terms of performance, maintenance and scalability.

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so do u think the approach is good or bad ?

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Yes. Here's an article about normalization:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization