Find replace with missing columns

[zajaccount]

Hi,

I have a question regarding the find replace tool.

I am parsing xmls and I would like to replace some data so that it has more meaning to an end user.

For instance, a file may have a following set of columns:

Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D

1                 | 2                 | 3                 | 4

2                 | 2                 | 3                 | 4

3                 | 2                 | 3                 | 4

I also have a file where the numbers are assigned certain values:

ID | Value

1  | Cat

2  | Dog

3  | Bird

4  | Fish

The issue is, not all of the files will have the same set of columns - some files may have all of them (and for this, the dfind replace tool works), while the other may be missing one/more categories. In these cases, I get an error that a column assigned to in the find replace tool was not found - I am wondering how to go about this.

So basically what i want in this case is for the data to look like the following:

Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D

Cat              | Dog            | Bird             | Fish

Dog             | Dog            | Bird             | Fish

Bird             | Dog             | Bird            | Fish

but I also need to get the workflow to work in case a file with less categories is input:

Category C

1

2

3

4

=

Category C

Cat

Dog

Bird

Fish

The files can have any number of the categories.

Thanks in advance.

[zajaccount · Accepted solution]

Now it hit me - I managed to do this by transposing the data and changing the structure of the lookup table.

Nevermind!