Could the Player Projections and the Custom Draft Guides Use the same player names?

[DSchmitz3]

For example, in the Projections, the SS for the Brewers is listed as "Hardy,J.J.". In the Custom Draft Guide, he is "James Hardy". This makes it hard to use both sources in spreadsheeting using VLookup.

The reason I ask is that I use a lot of spreadsheeting to build my own little rotolab draft sheet. However, I like to use both sources for dollar values. But I can't vlookup Mr. Hardy using both sources, as he is under two different names.

Would it be hard for BBHQ to use one player name with the two sources?

Is there any other workarounds?

Thanks, Dean

[Randall@HQ]

I passed your concerns along to our technical staff.

Here is a workaround for when some names are listed as "Last,First" and others are listed as "First Last".

0. (This assumes you want all names to be listed in the form "First Last".)
1. go to your spreadsheet where the names are listed "Last,First"
2. insert two extra columns to the right of of the names column
3. highlight the names column
4. from the command menu, choose Data, Text to Columns
5. choose Delimited (should be the default) and click Next
6. in the Delimiters box (upper left), uncheck Tab and check Comma
7. click Finish
8. you now have two columns with Last name in one, First name in the other
9. move one column to the right and go to the first cell that is next to a name
10. type in this formula: =B1&" "&A1 [modify B1 and A1 as appropriate for your spreadsheet]
11. when you press enter, this will concatenate (combine) the value in A1 and B1 with a space in between... giving you names in the format "First Last"
12. copy the formula all the way down the column
13. you now have a column of names in the format "First Last" which you can use to match your other spreadsheet's "First Last"

Hope this helps.

[DSchmitz3]

Randall,

Thanks for the tip. It will work as a workaround.

It does still leave those whose first name is written different. J.J. vs James Hardy, Brad vs Bradley Hawpe, others with and without a middle initial.

Any consistancy here would help.

Thanks again,
Dean

[Dish]

I would urge/beg that whatever changes that are made, not to change the names in the Player Projections file. I try to merge in data from other sources, and have a complicated 'master' sheet setup to allow vlookups to different sources based on the BBHQ projections name.

[DSchmitz3]

I would agree with Dish. I would guess that the player projections sheet has been around the longest and thus the format is the format that most "excel-ers" use.

[NICK@HQ]

Agreed, leave the player projections alone, but do bring the new Valuator in line with the player projections. In addition to getting rid of the dupes, I would agree that both sources should use a consistent naming template. Use lastname,firstname with the Valuator as it already is done in the player projections.