Minimum Programming Software

I am at a stage in a consulting contract where there's a dire need to import the minimal Excel fields/data (from a spreadsheet with extraneous tabs and fields) to effortlessly as possible build individual Mappoint files with pushpins and Driving directions. I've got at least a couple interrelated concerns (see UPPER CASE below) but will try to keep this to one thread.

Germane setup info:
Spreadsheet has 4K rows, 30ish columns. Primary sort is Col A,'Route Name', secondary Col E, 'Sched PickUpDelivery Time'. Col A has about 80 different values (by route name), with each route having 50ish rows designating deliveries. Columns H,I,J,K have operative address info for export to MP, and as you might suspect, there may be many rows (one delivery item per row) going to same address (repeating HIJK), and, a driver may need to stop at same the same address multiple times (separate legitimate instances of HIJK within a route that do need a separare pushpin). I strongly sense I should clean up everything using Excel VBA before I even call MP, but HOW MUCH VERSATILITY AND EASE DOES MAPPOINT PROGRAMMING OFFER (concatenation, ignore duplicate, etc?) that may actually make it easier then Excel?

Question #2: I have accomplished some easy intro coding and manipulating MP stuff via Excel VBA (Reference'd MP 13.0 in Tools), but am noticing early on I'm missing alot of what's demo'd here and other examples. Given the scope I described above, WHAT SOFTWARE DO I ACTUALLY NEED TO WRITE MODERATELY COMPLICATED CODE FOR MAPPOINT? (VB, VB Express, can I beef up Excel VBA?)

Thoughts?

THANKS ! ! Scott

Re: #1, I'm sure it would be easier in Excel or some other address cleaning software. MapPoint doesn't have any duping or string manipulation features outside of whatever programming language you are using.

What specifically does Excel VBA not do that you want to do? That might help to answer your question. As for VB Express, I would make sure there's not a commercial restriction (cannot use for business), but I don't have any experience with it not to recommend it... the help file examples in MapPoint are VB6 / VBA but it's pretty similar to VB.NET. If you go with VB.NET I would recommend the book Programming MapPoint in .NET, that might help over some of the minor syntax differences, or just check out a VB.NET article on MP2K Magazine.

hope this helps!
Eric

Thanks Eric -

For example, it won't recognize 'mappointctl.xxxx'

Doesn't like...
Dim objMap As MapPointctl.Map
Dim objPushPin As MapPointctl.Pushpin
Dim objDataSet As MapPointctl.DataSet

Is dropping the "ctl" equate to the same thing? (I'm getting back into this right now)

Dim objMap As MapPoint.Map
Dim objPushPin As MapPoint.Pushpin
Dim objDataSet As MapPoint.DataSet