Is it possible to move one row to multiple columns?

[cloobless]

Hi, I've been trying to get a solution for what I thought would be simple. I have a very large flat text file of thousands of records. It's all in a single linear format with line breaks for each line of data. The data is grouped in thousands of groups in exactly the same way. I'm trying to automatically parse the data so that each group is parsed into separate columns. The data in the flat file looks like the following (except there are thousands of groups, not three...):

{note that the first three lines are always the same and there is never a change in their frequency}
{note that the "sender" lines are variable; sometimes there's none, sometimes five senders, sometimes two, etc.}
{note the line break after the final sender and the next set of data}

---
Existing:

DATEdata
SUBJECTdata
Locationdata
sender--1
sender--2
sender--3

DATEdata
SUBJECTdata
Locationdata
sender--1
sender--2
sender--3
sender--4

DATEdata
SUBJECTdata
Locationdata
sender--1


Possible?

[TABLE="width: 500"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]Date[/TD]
[TD]Subject[/TD]
[TD]Location[/TD]
[TD]Sender[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2010-11-05[/TD]
[TD]recess[/TD]
[TD]c:[/TD]
[TD]sender--1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]sender--2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]sender--3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2010-11-06[/TD]
[TD]oranges[/TD]
[TD]c:\\oranges[/TD]
[TD]sender--1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]sender--2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]sender--3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]sender--4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2010-11-08[/TD]
[TD]karate[/TD]
[TD]d:[/TD]
[TD]sender--1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD](next)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[cloobless]

Leith, this works amazingly well. Thank you for an elegant, efficient solution to a tough problem and for offering your time. I deeply appreciate both.

 

[Leith Ross]

Hello cloobless,

You're welcome. It was fun.