>>>>if it's just those two formats then an inbetween table without the tel no to import to first if '|' occurs() in a line however many times is one less than usual.
>>>
>>>Thanks Ken but, as the title suggests, I've no way of knowing which columns will be missing next time; they may miss out the 3rd address line, or postcode, or God knows what.
>>>
>>>Terry
>>
>>Is the data you receive a complete update, or additions to your old data?
>
>In this instance I'm adding, but it could be for the first time, or overwriting the existing intermediary data. But we can't assume that the first import was THE DEFINITIVE format, if that's where you're angling.
>
>Grrr this make we wanna holler - throw up both my hands.

My angle was that maybe you could see some form of pattern, so that you can analyze what data each field contains.