
Automate data download from a software programme / batch amend text files
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Python | Web Scraping | Software development | API Development | Data Mining | Automation

Web Scraping & Automation Expert | 500M+ Records Delivered | SaaS and Custom Web App Development

12699701171747984130974818756619172391435885066618090311469407515826
Description
Experience Level: Expert
General information for the business: N/A - for private purposes
Description of requirements/functionality: I have two relatively straightforward tasks that I wish to automate.
I believe the solution will be very simple for someone who is able to write a script / macro, but alas I have no knowledge of how to do this, hence the job post!
1) I have a large number of text files which store historic share price data. Every file represents one share, and every line in each file represents a discrete trading day, and the data is stored in the following format:
YYYY-MM-DD,PPP.PP,VOD.L
where PPP.PP is the closing price for the security and VOD.L is the 'ticker' or stock symbol. I have appended a couple of examples.
The issue I have and need fixing is that my data source provides PPP.PP in GBX (pence), not GBP (pounds). I require it to be in the latter format and so the price needs converting by dividing by a factor of 100.
2) As an alternative to my existing data source, I have subscribed to a new software package (http://www.sharescope.co.uk/downloads - Sharescope Gold is my package). The software has an export tool whereby I can export in one go all historic price data for each of the shares I hold in a given 'portfolio'.
This is ideal from my perspective except that the configuration settings of the export are such that I can very nearly, but not quite, get the historic data in the precise format I need it in (namely, the YYYY-MM-DD,PPP.PP,VOD.L format mentioned above).
My requirement is for a script / macro to perform the export and then batch amend all of the exported files (one per share) to create the output .txt files that I require.
Thank you in advance for your attention and potential interest.
Please see extra notes below for further context and comments. I would suggest a video conference to better describe my requirements and, in particular, to walk through step (2) above.
OS requirements: Windows
Extra notes: As concerns task (1):
I have manually manipulated a number of files by converting them to CSV files, diving price column entries by 100 in excel, reformatting the data column (to the format required) and then converting back to .txt file, but this is not practicable as an on-going solution.
An additional challenge is that the data source provider does not have a '.' character for every instance. So, by way of example, if the stock price closes as a whole number, it might be quoted as '103', not '103.0', so I'm not sure the macro could just search for the '.' between the first and second ',' and move it two places to the left.
By way of example:
2010-05-07,100.25,AGIT.L
2010-05-10,99.75,AGIT.L
2010-05-11,99.75,AGIT.L
2010-05-12,99.5,AGIT.L
2010-05-13,100,AGIT.L
As concerns task (2):
The software has a very useful 'export after last download data' function , so it can incrementally append new historic data where it last left off. I would imagine the script would ideally work in two stages - firstly, exporting the incremental data and appending it to a set of files as created by the software's export configuration settings then, secondly, manipulating those files to generate the desired output configuration.
NB. the software and database are downloaded and sit of my hard-drive, so the export is really a retrieval of data from my own hard-drive, not a request sent over the web to a remote host.
Description of requirements/functionality: I have two relatively straightforward tasks that I wish to automate.
I believe the solution will be very simple for someone who is able to write a script / macro, but alas I have no knowledge of how to do this, hence the job post!
1) I have a large number of text files which store historic share price data. Every file represents one share, and every line in each file represents a discrete trading day, and the data is stored in the following format:
YYYY-MM-DD,PPP.PP,VOD.L
where PPP.PP is the closing price for the security and VOD.L is the 'ticker' or stock symbol. I have appended a couple of examples.
The issue I have and need fixing is that my data source provides PPP.PP in GBX (pence), not GBP (pounds). I require it to be in the latter format and so the price needs converting by dividing by a factor of 100.
2) As an alternative to my existing data source, I have subscribed to a new software package (http://www.sharescope.co.uk/downloads - Sharescope Gold is my package). The software has an export tool whereby I can export in one go all historic price data for each of the shares I hold in a given 'portfolio'.
This is ideal from my perspective except that the configuration settings of the export are such that I can very nearly, but not quite, get the historic data in the precise format I need it in (namely, the YYYY-MM-DD,PPP.PP,VOD.L format mentioned above).
My requirement is for a script / macro to perform the export and then batch amend all of the exported files (one per share) to create the output .txt files that I require.
Thank you in advance for your attention and potential interest.
Please see extra notes below for further context and comments. I would suggest a video conference to better describe my requirements and, in particular, to walk through step (2) above.
OS requirements: Windows
Extra notes: As concerns task (1):
I have manually manipulated a number of files by converting them to CSV files, diving price column entries by 100 in excel, reformatting the data column (to the format required) and then converting back to .txt file, but this is not practicable as an on-going solution.
An additional challenge is that the data source provider does not have a '.' character for every instance. So, by way of example, if the stock price closes as a whole number, it might be quoted as '103', not '103.0', so I'm not sure the macro could just search for the '.' between the first and second ',' and move it two places to the left.
By way of example:
2010-05-07,100.25,AGIT.L
2010-05-10,99.75,AGIT.L
2010-05-11,99.75,AGIT.L
2010-05-12,99.5,AGIT.L
2010-05-13,100,AGIT.L
As concerns task (2):
The software has a very useful 'export after last download data' function , so it can incrementally append new historic data where it last left off. I would imagine the script would ideally work in two stages - firstly, exporting the incremental data and appending it to a set of files as created by the software's export configuration settings then, secondly, manipulating those files to generate the desired output configuration.
NB. the software and database are downloaded and sit of my hard-drive, so the export is really a retrieval of data from my own hard-drive, not a request sent over the web to a remote host.
Laurence R.
100% (5)Projects Completed
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Last project
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United Kingdom
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Hello Laurence,
Please confirm the operating system of your desktop computer.
Regards,
John R
531628
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