This is the online manual of GRCTools, personal name and address management software.  Click here for details.

GRCCountry - processing a file

On the main screen of GRCCountry^TM , choose the file type of the file to be opened.

These file options are currently available:

   dBase III+ 
   Lotus 1-2-3, 1-A 
   Lotus 1-2-3, 2.x
   Lotus 1-2-3, 3.x
   Lotus Symphony 1.01
   Lotus Symphony 1.1
   Microsoft Access
   Microsoft Excel 2/3/4
   Microsoft Excel 5.0
   Microsoft Excel 97
   Microsoft FoxBASE+
   Microsoft FoxPro 2.x
   Microsoft Multiplan 4.01
   Microsoft Visual FoxPro
   SQL Server

The native formats of GRCCountry^TMare Visual FoxPro/dBase III+. A data file which is in one of those formats will usually be processed without problems because no data translation has to be done. For all other data formats, GRCCountry^TMwill export the file to Visual FoxPro format for processing and then export it again to the input format. If GRCCountry^TMhas problems in exporting the data to Visual FoxPro format, it may produce errors. Please check on the list below to ensure that your file will process without problems:

All formats - file names - an input file name must commence with a letter. A file commencing with a number or other character will return an error.

All formats - field lengths - GRCCountry^TMsupports field names of 10 characters or less. If you data contains field names which are longer, they are truncated when exported to Visual FoxPro format for processing. If this truncation produces duplicate field names, GRCCountry^TMwill give an error. For example, if your file contains the field names:

   address_line_1
   address_line_2

these fields become truncated to

   address_li
   address_li

The file then contains duplicate field names and GRCCountry^TMwill return an error. Furthermore, no field may be longer than 250 characters.

Microsoft Excel - Importing and exporting from Excel will usually corrupt diacritical marks (accented characters) in your data. This is a characteristic of Excel and not of GRCCountry^TM. If your data contains diacritical marks, you should not use Excel as an import format for GRCCountry^TM. Also, Excel may export fields which should be character fields (such as a postal code field) as a numeric field. Not only will GRCCountry^TMnot process numeric fields, Excel will remove any zeros at the front of the data in numeric field, damaging your data.

Microsoft Access - There are some major compatibility problems between Access and FoxPro, and the use of Access input files is best avoided. In any case, fields in Access files must have the "Allow zero length" option set to 'yes' to allow GRCCountry^TMto write data back to the file after processing. Furthermore, no field may be longer than 250 characters long, otherwise it is exported as an unexpected field type and cannot be processed.

Choose the file to be processed using the browse button , then press the button to read the file.

Next, choose the fields tab.

You are next required to specify the fields in the chosen data source which contain company name, address and postal code information. Include any fields which may include this data:

   Company name
   Street address
   Settlement name
   Region name
   Postal code
   Country name

As a minimum, GRCCountry^TM****requires field(s) containing postal code and settlement name to process data.

To choose fields, double click on the field names in the left-hand column or highlight them and press the right arrow button to select. To unselect a field, double click on the field name in the right-hand column or highlight it and press the left arrow button.

Next, choose the Field Contents tab.

GRCCountry^TMneeds to know what data to check for. As GRCCountry^TMrequires as a minimum place name and postal code information, these boxes are checked and cannot be changed. If your data contains in some or all cases any of the other information, check the relevant boxes.

IMPORTANT: E-mail address identification works on the basis of the two-letter Internet domain code, i.e. .de for Germany. In certain circumstances, this may be mistaken for other strings, such as the DE state code of Delaware. If in doubt, do not choose to identify countries on the basis of e-mail address/URL.

Next, choose the Coding type tabs.

This screen requires a number of parameters.

You need firstly to choose a country coding system for GRCCountry^TMto use. The choice is the ISO 3166 2 or 3 letter code, or the GRC Database Information internal code. The codes are:

You then need to specify the field to which the code is to be written. This must be a character/alphanumeric type field.

GRCCountry^TMprocesses addresses by giving a different weighting to the data in each record that it finds, and adding this up to reach a final assessment. For example, an address:

   Bonnstrasse 17
   11705 BERLIN

may have weights assigned as follows:

   Germany: City name and postal code combination: 100, street type: 5, postal code pattern: 15.  Total: 120
   France: Postal code pattern: 15.  Total: 15
   Austria: Street type: 5.  Total: 5

And so on. The differential is the difference between the number assigned to the best fit country and the next one. In the example above, the difference between the best match (Germany, 120 points) and the second (France, 15) is 105 points.

However, if the same address is written with an incorrect postal code as follows:

   Bonnstrasse 17
   1705 BERLIN

the assessment is much less definite. In this case the weights might become:

   Germany: City name: 15, street type: 5.  Total: 35
   Austria: Postal code pattern: 15, Street type: 5.  Total: 20

The differential is now only 15 points – the assessment is less certain.

The Differential to accept as correct spinner allows you to specify how much of a difference there should be between the top two possible matches to assign a code. We have found that a differential of 10 will give good results for good quality addresses, with full data including largely correct postal codes. For more definite assignments, a differential of 20 may be assigned – in this case fewer countries are found, but equally fewer errors are made. A differential of 30 may be used for very poor quality data. Higher than 30 or lower than 10 should not be used.

You may find it useful to know what differential GRCCountry^TMfound in its processing. If you choose a field in the Write differential to which field dropdown, the differential number will be written to that field. NOTE: this must be a numeric field. Specifying this field is optional – you may leave it blank.

Finally, if you choose a field in the Write results token to which field, this field (which must be character/alphanumeric in type) will contain ratings for each country. This token contains the country rating followed by the GRC internal country code. The information for each country is divided by a bar symbol (|). For example:

   20:ARG|20:USA|20:SPA|15:AST|15:SLO|5:PAR   

The assessment given is dependent upon a number of factors and is not fixed for each element. NOTE: Specifying this field is optional – you may leave it blank.

GRC Country^TMwill now start processing your data. This screen keeps you updated on progress. The number found per country is shown on the grid to the right of the screen, updated every 100 records.

Press F2 at any time to interrupt processing. It is important to avoid interrupting GRCCountry^TM**in any other way, for example by turning off your computer during processing. This can cause corruption of the lookup tables and can prevent GRCCountry**^TM****from working.

After processing GRCCountry^TMwill present the report to you on the screen.

This report lists the number of records found per country.

Using the floating menu bar, you can scroll through the pages of the report using these buttons (the middle button allows you to skip to a specified page number); zoom in and out using this option: ; Exit the report without printing it ; or print the report .