TXTCollector is a small program that can combine text files in a directory into a single file.
It can read TXT, HTM, INI, INF, LOG, REG, CSV files and will give you the option to include your own custom separator between each of the combined files, as well as rows that identify the original file name. It will read files in sub folders recursively.
This is a tool which I use daily. It is so simple yet useful that I decided its about time I posted it on Freewaregenius.
I imagine most people might potentially have a use for this one; consider the following scenarios.
- You download daily performance/sales/financial reports for your work in CSV or TXT formats. At the end of the month you would like a monthly report that contains both a daily view and a monthly summary view. Perhaps you do not have access to a single downloadable file for the entire month or period, or the monthly report is not offered through your reporting system, is too big to download, or is only offered as a summary report with no daily details. TXTCollector might just be the solution to your problem; just point it to the directory where you have your daily reports (make sure all the data is there with no gaps), and it will create a combined file for you in a flash.
- Say you work with a lot of log data and would like an easy way to import the data from countless files into a database or MS Excel. Put all of your logs in a folder and TXTCollector can scan all files that are of the specified type and instantly give you a single file to work with.
Notes on importing into Excel:
- If you import your data into MS Excel (as I do), you may run into the problem of the maximum allowed number of rows for a file (65,536 rows for Excel 2003 and 1,048,576 rows for Excel 2007). In this case (ironically) you could use Textwedge in order to chop up your file into the optimum-sized chunks.
- Rename the text files generated by TXTCollector into CSV before loading into Excel. This will circumvent the need to convert columns to values, a problem which might present itself when you load a text file.
If you work with data you may well find this tiny app a welcome addition to your repertoire of tools.
Version tested: 1.0.9
Compatibility: Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/2003/XP.
Go to the program home page to get the latest version.
