Changing manual timetabling to electronic
October 14, 2013 6:48 PM   Subscribe

I receive timetabling data in Excel spreadsheets and want to map it out automatically, rather than working out the timetable/grid by hand every time because the data changes, and I'd also like to filter it to show certain groups - teacher for example.

So I’m doing timetabling for my organisation this semester, and in the past, the incumbents have entered the data manually, which seems to me to be ridiculous. However, I can’t quite work out how to do it.

These are the variables I work with:
*Course Code
*Teacher
*Class Type
*Venue
*Day
*Time Start
*Time End

Now I can and have done a pivot table that works just fine EXCEPT some of the classes go for one hour, some for two, some for three, and some for the entire day. I want to see a grid with days and course codes down the side, and times across the top. With the way my data is currently structured, I’m getting that, except every class looks like it’s one hour.
I want a table that has days across the top, times down the side, and the grid showing class, venue, teacher. I could do this in a report in Access, except for the difference in class lengths. That’s where I’m losing the plot. I’m not very good at coding, but I can see that if I do end time – start time, I do get the length of the class, but not sure how then to reflect that against time.

Sample data here
posted by b33j to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not following what the question is. You say "every class looks like it's one hour." How are you getting a value of one hour?

It would likely help people answer your question if you used your sample data to manually construct a report how you would like it to appear--it's not at all clear from your description.
posted by dfriedman at 7:14 PM on October 14, 2013


Response by poster: The 2nd tab shows how it looks in an Excel pivot table - each grid spot has a count (1) from the start time regardless of the length of the class.

The 3rd tab shows the simplest form I'm hoping for, but what I would really really really love is this where you can see different timeslots over similar times on the same day.

I did try to import my data into a fresh google calendar but I was unsuccessful.
posted by b33j at 7:24 PM on October 14, 2013


You might be able to wrangle your data into a CSV format that Google Calendar can import. The tricky part will be generating the specific dates and times (e.g. 10/14/2013 instead of "Monday") that Google Calendar expects. You could do this in a few lines of Python using its csv and datetime modules.
posted by Jotnbeo at 9:23 PM on October 14, 2013


This isn't a direct answer to your question, but if you are only trying to get the time tabling process electronic, have you considered pitching an off the shelf solution to the problem? This is a solved problem - many institutions use time tabling software.

I believe my school uses one called Timetabler, replacing something else we used to use called FirstClass. The timetable organiser has been praising the arrival of timetabler a lot, claiming it makes blocking subjects together and applying rules much easier than doing it all manually.

If your organisation is willing to consider budgeting for this kind of solution, it could be worth investigating.
posted by man down under at 1:00 AM on October 15, 2013


Just add a column to the source table before you make your pivot (or change the pivot source to include the added column). The formula in the added column is =TimeEnd-TimeStart.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:38 AM on October 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


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