Automatic text generation

[Paul Smith]

On 3/17/07, Peter Larsen <plarsen at famlarsen.homelinux.com> wrote:
> > I have a long spreadsheet as follows:
> >
> > X1    X2    X3    X4    X5
> > 2    6    1    1    4
> > 2    1    3    1    5
> > 3    3    3    4    6
> > 4    2    5    3    4
> > 6    6    5    1    1
> > 5    6    4    1    3
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > For each number and for each X variable, there is a small piece of
> > text. I am looking for a program to replace, for each spreadsheet line
> > and for each number therein, the respective text and create a phrase
> > concatenating the pieces of text corresponding to the numbers. Is
> > there some tool to accomplish this goal?
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
>
> Why not simply use the spreadsheet to do this?
> You can calculate a text string as well as a nummeric result.
> In open office, use concatenate, and then hlookup for each field.
>
> Create a list with the text corresponding to your nummeric value. Give
> it a heading (very important) for instance "Text". Use hlookup to find
> the text based on an index (your value) - and remember to add 1, as the
> header is row #1. Then simply concatenate the dlookup results for each
> column, add spaces if you need. That'll result in a column with text
> that corresponds to your number.
>
> I have a small example spreadsheet here, I can mail you if you're
> interested.

Thanks to all. Yes, I thought about using the spreadsheet itself, as
you suggest. The problem is that the resulting text for each line may
be too long and easily visible. Can this be circumvented?

Paul