Features & Functionality

Have a look at the powerful automatic data processing, manipulation, management and cleansing features:

The File Selection Area

• Hover mouse cursor over a chosen input file name, and it will instantly show you a pop-up 'hint' of the contents of the first 20 lines of the file. No need to switch in and out of The DataSurgeon in order to double-check the contents of your files.
  
  
• Get an instant preview of what the field structure of your data file looks like by just double-clicking one of your chosen input file names, then selecting the appropriate field delimiter character.
  
  
• Automatically detects and processes Windows/UNIX/Mac format text files as input. Choose any of the 3 formats as your output.
  
  
  

The Patterns Area

• Add precision  to a placeholder by simply double-clicking in front of it and punching in the exact values you want to allow, in the popup window that appears... either individual ones, or a whole range of values.
  
  
• For convenience, you can do the inverse of the above action by simply clicking an optional checkbox. This will then allow everything except  the specific precision values you punched in.
  
  
• Search, match, and modify for literally anything as you can specify HUGE pattern lengths of up to 300 characters. Extremely powerful automatic data processing capabilities.
  
  
• Just hover over a placeholder to display a pop-up hint window showing at-a-glance the precision settings you've assigned to that placeholder.
  
  
• In the Modify Pattern area, the pop-up hint will also display the original position of where that placeholder was in your Extract Pattern, and its new position of where you moved it to in your Modify Pattern. This lets you very easily keep track of what characters you've moved where... just at a glance. The DataSurgeon is truly a unique data management software / platform.
  
  
• Also in the Modify Pattern area, you can replace the value of any placeholder with any constant value you want - just by double-clicking in front of it. The new constant value can be a single character or even multiple characters. Complex data manipulation chores are simply a breeze with The DataSurgeon.
  
  
• While building your pattern, hover your mouse over the eyeglasses  icon to see the effect of each change instantly in real-time! A great aid in showing you on-the-fly  if your pattern is doing just what you want it to do.
  
  
  

The Options & Settings Area

• Tell The DataSurgeon to search the complete data record, or choose to search only a specific field # in your record... your choice. This way you don't inadvertantly grab/change data that you didn't want to, from some other part of the record. Records of up to 9999 fields can be accommodated.
  
  
• Find matches case-sensitively or case-insensitively.
  
  
• For even more surgical-like precision, you can grab only  matches depending on what's to the immediate  left and/or the immediate  right of the match. This safeguards from finding false matches that are simply part of a longer string of text. Be pinpoint precise about your data cleansing / management!
  
  
• Choose your desired output in 1 of 5 ways:

• Save button lets you save all your settings and patterns on the screen to a file for quick recall later. Create individual settings files for all your various pattern matching needs once, and never have to do so again.... build your own library. Open button allows you to load in a saved settings file, and the Clear button clears out/initializes all settings and fields on the screen.
  
  
• At the click of a button, display a detailed Activity Report with results, tallies, and stats on the job just completed.