Format text file so I can import it into excel - arrays

Question

I have a huge list of addresses and details I need to convert into an Excel spreadsheet and I think the best way would be to read the data and then write a second document that separates the lines so that they are tab-delimited whilst recognizing blank lines (between data entries) to preserve each separate address.
It is in the format:
AddressA1
AddressB1
Postcode1
Name1
PhoneNumber1
AddressA2
AddressB2
Postcode2
Name2
Name2
PhoneNumber2
AddressA3
AddressB3
Postcode3
Name3
PhoneNumber3
So the difficulty also comes when there are multiple names for a company, but I can hand format those if necessary (ideally they want to take on the same address as each other).
The resulting text document then, wants to be tab-delimited to:
Name|AddressA|AddressB|Postcode|Phone Number
I am thinking this would be easiest to do within a simple .bat command? or should I open the list in excel and run a script through that..?
I'm thinking if I can run through where it adds each entry to an array ($address $name etc) then I can use that to build a new text file by writing $name[i] tab $address[$i] etc
There are hundreds of entries and putting it in by hand is proving.. difficult.
I have some experience in MEL (basically C++) so I do understand programming in general, but somewhat at a loss in how .bat and Excel (VB?) handle and define empty lines and tabs.

Answer 1

The first step would be to bring the data into an Excel file. Once the data has been imported, we can re-package it to meet your specs. The first step:
Sub BringFileIn()
Dim TextLine As String, CH As String
Close #1
Open "C:\TestFolder\question.txt" For Input As #1
Dim s As String
Dim I As Long, J As Long
J = 1
I = 1
Do While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, TextLine
Cells(I, J) = TextLine
I = I + 1
Loop
Close #1
End Sub

Answer 2

Any text editor that can do regex search and replace across multiple lines can do the job nicely.
I have written a hybrid JScript/batch utility called REPL.BAT that performs a regex search and replace on stdin and writes the result to stdout. It is pure script that works on any modern Windows machine from XP forward - No 3rd party executable required. Full documentation is embedded within the script.
Assuming REPL.BAT is in your current directory, or better yet, somewhere within your PATH, then:
type file.txt|repl "\r?\n" "\t" mx|repl "\t\t" "\n" x|repl "^(([^\t]*\t){4})([^\t]*)$" "$1\t$3" x >newFile.txt
The above modifies the file in 3 steps and writes the result to a new file, leaving the original intact:
convert all newlines into tabs
convert consecutive tabs into newlines
insert an empty column (tab) before the last column on any line that contains only 5 columns.

Answer 3

Here's a method using only Word and Excel. I used the data that you posted. I am assuming that Name2 is the only optional field.
Paste your text into Word.
Replace all paragraph marks with a special
characters. (Ctrl-h, Search for ^p, Replace with |)
Replace all line breaks with a different special character. (Ctrl-h, Special character, search for Manual line break, replace with ;)
This is what it looks like in Word:
AddressA1;AddressB1;Postcode1;Name1;PhoneNumber1|AddressA2;AddressB2;Postcode2;Name2;Name2;PhoneNumber2|AddressA3;AddressB3;Postcode3;Name3;PhoneNumber3||
Then convert text to table (Insert -> Table -> Convert text to table), delimiting by ;. This gives 3 rows (plus 2 blank rows) of 1 column.
Then copy the table.
Now in Excel:
Paste the table. (It'll be one row in each row, with all of your fields in column A.)
Convert the text to columns (Data tab, Text to columns, Delimited, check semicolon)
Sort by column E. The phone numbers should be grouped together.
Cut the phone numbers in column E and copy to column F.