How to build conditional text from a data merge

Question

Hi there
I'm hoping this is not a long shot but I do have a rather large ask (I think). 
I cannot figure out how to create conditions on values.
We have two areas that require conditional text. See these areas on the attached image. 
Features offered - up to 6.  These are identified by defining each feature with a letter, eg 'n' stands for tent site and 'L' stands for seasonal work,  and
Room type offered - four colour codes with this. These range from "not made up", "made up", "ensuite/madeup" and "ensuite".
The tab delimited file contains numerous columns for each room type - single, double, twin, share and dorm rooms that offer the 4 room type categories - see point 2 above. 
I cannot figure out how to clarify the conditions I require for the conditional text.
Do I start with making 4 conditions for each room type colour and so-on for the rest of the room types ie single not madeup, single madeup, single madeup ensuite and single ensuite? 
And if so, how do I create these using the correct conditional code?   Does GREP have anything to do with this and do I need to use its metacharacters like \?
Can someone perhaps start me off?
The same goes for the features.  The features are displayed in the spreadsheet per column with either a 'yes' or a 'no' displayed.
I hope I have provided enough information to get some assistance.
Thanks so much.

Answer 1

Tag Design wrote:
Hi there
I'm hoping this is not a long shot but I do have a rather large ask (I think). 
I cannot figure out how to create conditions on values.
We have two areas that require conditional text. See these areas on the attached image. 
Features offered - up to 6.  These are identified by defining each feature with a letter, eg 'n' stands for tent site and 'L' stands for seasonal work,  and
Room type offered - four colour codes with this. These range from "not made up", "made up", "ensuite/madeup" and "ensuite".
The tab delimited file contains numerous columns for each room type - single, double, twin, share and dorm rooms that offer the 4 room type categories - see point 2 above. 
I cannot figure out how to clarify the conditions I require for the conditional text.
Do I start with making 4 conditions for each room type colour and so-on for the rest of the room types ie single not madeup, single madeup, single madeup ensuite and single ensuite? 
And if so, how do I create these using the correct conditional code?   Does GREP have anything to do with this and do I need to use its metacharacters like \?
Can someone perhaps start me off?
The same goes for the features.  The features are displayed in the spreadsheet per column with either a 'yes' or a 'no' displayed.
I hope I have provided enough information to get some assistance.
Thanks so much.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see why you need conditional text. I can see that you may want to color each property in each category differently, to stand out for quick visual communication.
If each feature (attribute) of each property or venue is represented in one spreadsheet row (record,) you can use data merge to create the whole entry for each property. For example, a property may offer two types of rooms - single and double, and the single may be available as "not made up" only, while the double is available as "ensuite/madeup" and "ensuite."
In the spreadsheet, in the row for the Acme Inn property, which only offers single not-made-up and single ensuite/madeup rooms, and for the Ajax Hotel property which offers single made-up, single ensuite/madeup, and single ensuite rooms, the cells that contain the data for the merge fields would look like this:
Property ID
single not-made-up
single made-up
single ensuite/madeup
single ensuite
Acme Inn
$50
empty cell
$75
empty cell
Ajax Hotel
empty cell
$65
$75
$85
On the data-merge layout, each room type's label would be followed by all four data-merge field placeholders, with colors applied, so the single would look like:
Sgle: <<single not-made-up>> (red) <<made-up>> (yellow) <<ensuite/madeup>> (green) <<ensuite>> (blue)
NOTE: The colors are applied with named character styles to the data-merge layout in InDesign.
[EDIT] BAH! I applied colors to the text when composing this post, but they were removed when I posted. [/EDIT]
When you set up the merge with Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields enabled (checked) so the empty cells are ignored, the result resembles this:
For the Acme Inn:      Sgl: $50 (red) $75 (green) $85 (blue)
For the Ajax Hotel:    Sgl: $65 (yellow) $75 (green) $85 (blue)
The separator character between the prices in your example is a special issue. It could be solved in the spreadsheet by creating calculated columns between the price columns, with "IF" formulas that test for values or empty cells and display the separator or nothing. If you choose this method, you'd need to insert fields between the placeholder fields, to hold the calculated fields' contents.
Another approach here would be to follow the data-merge process with a GREP script that inserts separators where they're needed.
Search Google for terms like "InDesign data-merge tutorial," "InDesign data-merge remove blank lines," "InDesign multiple records per page," and similar phrases without quotes.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
Message was edited by: peter at knowhowpro