Feature Clips

When creating a new chemical catalog using ChemBioFinder, users usually have some data in chemical format (SDFile) and some data in Excel spreadsheets. This video demonstrates how to merge two such files, using Alfa Aesar’s chemical catalog. Alfa Aesar originally kept their chemical structures in an SDFile, indexed by an “Item Number” code. That code matched up with their price list in Excel. Our steps include:

1. Importing an SDFile into a new ChemBioFinder database.
2. Linking by exactly matching the column name in Excel vs. the SDFile.
3. Converting an Excel spreadsheet to a TXT file for import.
4. Merge the Excel price data into ChemBioFinder.
5. Observing “tabs” in ChemBioFinder for each data source, and moving fields between tabs.
6. Exporting the merged data to a new SDFile with both chemical structures and price data.

This catalog keeps pricing information in an Excel spreadsheet, but the same method would apply for any data in an Excel spreadsheet. In other settings, the Excel data might be empirical data about each substance; or assay data in multiple dimensions. Merging in ChemBioFinder also works for multiple SDFiles, which is demonstrated in other videos.

This Feature Clip is part 1 of a series. Please see the continuation of the series:

• Part 2: Chemical structure database cleanup: Building a catalog in ChemBioFinder

• Part 3: Using chemical catalogs in ChemFinder: Creating customer-requested lists

• Part 4: Chemical databases in ChemFinder: List updates (price and structure)