HELP! compare, sort and plot graphs

[KJoker]

I have a software that exports its reports in tab delimited format, i have 26 of those to open in excel and i'm opening it individually, doing up the individual tab delimiting msgs, then moving each sheet to one workbook to combine them.

- surely there must be an easier way to do all that! any solutions?

all 26 are item lists. my coy does stock takes fortnightly

e.g.
[TABLE="width: 478"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]week 1-2[/TD]
[TD]price[/TD]
[TD]qty[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]week 3-4[/TD]
[TD]price[/TD]
[TD]qty[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]ham[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]ham[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2.5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]12[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]cheese[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]20[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]rice[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8.5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]15[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]wine[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]30[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]noodles[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]17[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]rice[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]40[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]bacon[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]23[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]sausage[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]50[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]wine[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5.5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]42[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

- i wish to compare designate one sheet as base and compare across sheets to check if there is any new items week to week. note that the order of the items may jumble and there are new items added or taken out every time so maybe an output or shading of new items?

- plot out a graph for certain items (i.e. ham is a mainstay on the list) on the price and qty change from fortnight to fortnight

- arrange the sheets in the workbook in descending order

Thank you in advance!

 

[KJoker]

upzzz for replies =)

 

[KJoker]

- there seems to be no easy way to open up all the text delimited files, have to do it one by one and move to a workbook

- for the finding of items and the related prices and qty, use VLOOKUP

- did a merge, put all items on a master list and consolidated all the data on a table

- charting part still learning

anyone wanna chime in on useful functions like ISNA, IFERROR and such?
or tips n tricks on how to use a pivot table? what does a pivot table do?

Thanks