Changing Fields

[Brendan_Young]

Hey all, thanks for reading.

We're in our early stages of Sforce use, and I find myself wanting to change some of our data around. For instance, for a large chunk of records, I'd like to take all data from our custom field, "Neighborhood," and move it to "City."

I also find myself wanting to add a field or two of data here and there en masse. For instance, say we decide to start collecting new data for a new field that applies to 100 account records. I want to add the data of this new field to 100 records, what's the easiest way to do that?

[Stevemo]

Which edition of SFDC are you using?  If you are on EE or UE you can use the Force.com Dataloader to do mass export, import, update, upserts, etc.  If you're on CE, GE, or PE then you've gotta try something like the Excel Connector or the Import Wizard.

[Brendan_Young]

Using PE. Currently experimenting with "Informatica" data loader, ever hear of it?

[Stevemo]

I've heard of it, but never used it.

[Brendan_Young]

Hey, I'm having some real success with your advice, thanks so much.

One more quick question for you, is it possible to update leads with the Import Wizard, or does it always just create a new lead?

Thanks! 

[Stevemo]

Yeah, you're gonna owe me a beer soon...  

There is an option to overwrite/update existing records with the Import Wizard, but I haven't done it myself in years.  Basically once you start using the DataLoader there's not much need to use the Import Wizard. 

[Brendan_Young]

I think there's a company that makes money transfers via text messages. If I could text you a cold brew, now that would be nice. Thanks again for helping.

[Stevemo]

It looks like you can

Can I update existing leads during lead import?

Yes, if you use a Matching Type of Salesforce.com ID, Name, or Email. For example, if you are matching by email and a record in your source file has the same email as a lead in Salesforce.com, then that lead will be updated in Salesforce.com, provided you have read/write access to that lead. If you are not matching by email and there is a record in Salesforce.com with the same email, then a new lead will be created.