thanks a ton guys!

gotacha... appreciate the help

thanks guys.  this is great. really appreciate the assistance!

Interesting, at the surface, one would think this wouldn't be a difficult job for sql server to handle(?)

Thank you!  (Although I coulda sworn I tried that before....)

Hi Again (and Merry Christmas),

Actually, the data I was working with (<500 records) had absolutely no first names <3 characters, so to be brutally honest, I didn't give it a...

Sure, here we are (funky as it is)  So long story short, I need to combine the First 5 characters of the Last Name with the first 3 characters of...

Yes sorry.... I have a tendency of assuming folks can read my mind.  What I want to do is to get the first 5 letters of the first name and...

Just an update...

I was able to get this to work nicely in a function, but could a variable accomplish the same thing?

thanks Phil!

I'm gonna look into this.  Looks like this will fit the bill.

~wish I could come up with this stuff off the top of my head

yes, it does seems that (the spaces) was somehow the issue, at least far as I can tell.  In fact, I didn't recreate anything this time.  I just took the...

well.... renaming them let's say 'All Dogs' to 'All Dogs' didn't seem to work, but renaming them 'All Dogs' to 'AllDogs' did work.  If that's the point you were trying...

Thanks Phil (and also Palandri)  It was funny, as I was getting ready to do screenshots and such, I tried altering just one thing... that was, the individual Sheet Names...

will do.... I'll need to sanitize it a bit since there's sensitive info, but in essence, should be the same...

thank you

yeah, far as I can tell, the sheet names can be whatever.  Basically, let's say the Excel file is called Pets_01012019.  Within that workbook, there is a worksheet 'Cats' and...

interesting.  Maybe a Data Flow Task is in order.  Yes, the example I followed (one of the few that seemed to suit my needs) used a Script, and inside the...