Advice on export/database tools

ArquimedezPozo · 12-19-2023, 09:11 PM

I'll preface this with a disclaimer that I know next to nothing about SQL or databases, generally. However, I have a long-term promotion/relegation league that I do a lot of historical work with, including merging records across the four leagues in the Association, tracking all-time leaders across them, and a variety of other things that, especially given the limitations of the Association feature, I can't do in game.

The problem is that what I do (downloading reports of career stats from each of my leagues each year, combining and deduping them in a spreadsheet, then sorting) is fairly bulky and time-consuming for a workaround, is prone to error, and still doesn't do everything I want it to. As the league's gotten older, too, I've run into problems with my reports, where the list page insists on splitting it into multiple pages, making downloads even tougher.

I've thought about trying to download all this into a database program, but learning it seems daunting to me, especially when I don't want to do more than data analysis with it. I've seen reference to third part apps here but most seem focused on online leagues.

So this is basically my long-winded way of asking for advice: what's the easiest or best way for me to be able to download career records for my leagues and work with it? And possibly do other things like combine those with awards data, or sort through single-season performances to get, for example, a list of 40/40 seasons? Is it just "continue to futz around with Excel," or is there a better way?

Any advice appreciated.

darkcloud4579 · 12-19-2023, 10:42 PM

I'd ask a generative AI or Claude AI because you could share the files and explain what you're trying to do with more detail and it'll tell you, but the answer is probably something like "learn python" or "CSV palooza" to do whatever it is you're trying to do as it'll be massive files with a lot of data/information that's only known to you because you've run this league.

12-19-2023, 09:11 PM	#1
ArquimedezPozo Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 226	Advice on export/database tools I'll preface this with a disclaimer that I know next to nothing about SQL or databases, generally. However, I have a long-term promotion/relegation league that I do a lot of historical work with, including merging records across the four leagues in the Association, tracking all-time leaders across them, and a variety of other things that, especially given the limitations of the Association feature, I can't do in game. The problem is that what I do (downloading reports of career stats from each of my leagues each year, combining and deduping them in a spreadsheet, then sorting) is fairly bulky and time-consuming for a workaround, is prone to error, and still doesn't do everything I want it to. As the league's gotten older, too, I've run into problems with my reports, where the list page insists on splitting it into multiple pages, making downloads even tougher. I've thought about trying to download all this into a database program, but learning it seems daunting to me, especially when I don't want to do more than data analysis with it. I've seen reference to third part apps here but most seem focused on online leagues. So this is basically my long-winded way of asking for advice: what's the easiest or best way for me to be able to download career records for my leagues and work with it? And possibly do other things like combine those with awards data, or sort through single-season performances to get, for example, a list of 40/40 seasons? Is it just "continue to futz around with Excel," or is there a better way? Any advice appreciated.

12-19-2023, 10:42 PM	#2
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,658	I'd ask a generative AI or Claude AI because you could share the files and explain what you're trying to do with more detail and it'll tell you, but the answer is probably something like "learn python" or "CSV palooza" to do whatever it is you're trying to do as it'll be massive files with a lot of data/information that's only known to you because you've run this league.