Question Storing data essential to an application

Joined
Jun 2, 2011
Messages
16
Programming Experience
3-5
My name is Jesse, and I am self taught. There is lots I do not know, but I am handy with VB in my own way.

I am developing an application that parses spreadsheets and puts the data in an DB and some of it gets turned into XML and delivered through a WebService. I can do all of that, but I have a more basic question:

These SpreadSheets come from different sources, so they are all formatted differently. I want to be able to save the logic for SpreadSheets from a source, so the user does not have to determine which column goes where every time. Ok, here is the basic question:

The means I have a lot of data to save. This is a common problem with everything I try to do. Currently, I save all of this data in text files and I write sub routines that parse the text in the file. But this cannot be right. My question refers to a whole concept in computer programming that I obviously know nothing about.

The most basic need for this is when I need to match a field in a database or a database object to a field in a SOAP Message, and that kind of thing.

Can someone guide me to where I can learn more about the proper way to approach this common problem?
 
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