> Return to the #85 Newsletter
You can upload companies based on a list of ID numbers to SABI in order to retrieve data from a set of previously defined companies.
To load companies from an external file based on company ID numbers, you must first prepare the external file to be uploaded, which can either be a text file or a spreadsheet.
• Uploading data from a text file.
1. Open your favorite text editor (e.g. notepad).
2. Type in the list of ID numbers corresponding to the companies you wish to upload.
3. Each ID number entered must be separated from the others using a consistent separator (e.g. tab, comma, semi-column, etc). It does not matter which you use as long as they are all the same.
4. Save the file using the file extension corresponding to the ID numbers contained in the file (e.g. for Bvd ID numbers use .bvd, for ISIN numbers use .ISI, etc). The file extension will tell SABI which ID numbers they correspond to when uploading.
Go to SABI, click on “Identification numbers” and then select the option you are going to use: NIF, BVD ID Numbers or Stock Securities Numbers (ISIN number or stock symbol). Then you have two options:
1. Click on “Load from Disk” to upload your file, or
2. Copy and paste the ID numbers. Separate each entry with a comma or by pressing return. At the end, click on “Search” and “View list of results”.
• To upload data from a spreadsheet.
If you have a spreadsheet with many columns of data, one corresponding to company ID numbers, you may directly use this spreadsheet without prior preparation.
Go to SABI, click on “Saved searches” and then select “Load from disk” and lastly click on “Select file”. A new window appears where you have to specify the structure of your file (worksheet, field separator, tabulations, lines, variable). Click on the OK button to confirm your selection and upload the ID numbers. A confirmation screen is then brought up showing all the ID numbers that were found and not found.
Remember that each line can only contain one ID number.
Warning: The maximum number of identifiers that can be loaded from a disk is 1 million.