Discussion: Results by Course or by Class?

In the "Tuscon A meet results" discussion, coach asks:
"Does anyone know of a way to get Winsplits to display by course rather than class?"

My understanding is that WinSplits displays only the 'grouping' that is uploaded by the event organizer. If I am correct, then my question is which format do people prefer - by course or by category?

Personally I prefer by course since it gives more splits comparisons, and it allows you to browse all results by looking at the fewest groupings.

The full version of WinSplits allows you to show results by course, class, common controls, or any combination you heart desires.

By the "Full Version" do you mean the software you buy for your computer that costs about $80? Would you recommend it? I had an earlier version but had horrible problems with it trying to download events off the web.

Well, since I get a percentage of all the copies sold via the English-language version of the WinSplits website, any advice I give should be taken with a grain of salt. On the other hand, I can honestly say that I am addicted to WinSplits, as is pretty much my whole club. I have also never had problems downloading events off the web and, when it's open, a widget tells you when a new event has been uploaded.

Last night we sat in our hotel room in Tucson with the new Winsplits Pro and had a lot of fun analyzing splits and results from the meet. It was really easy to combine the various classes to courses instead. I don't get a percentage of sales like Boris, but am equally addicted!

I also prefer seeing the splits by course, but I believe you can only upload the results to WinSplits by class. You would have to alter the splits file to make everyone's "class" the "course" to work around this.

I am also a fan of WS Pro (no royalties to me), and I love the flexibility it offers in combining classes.

I am pretty certain that you can upload results to WinSplits (online) by Course. In the SI software, just select the "by course" option rather than the "by category" option when generating the export file. I do this for Barebones every year.

Does anyone prefer 'by category"?

I don't see that the Barebones have been created in any format but by Class. Could you post a link if I am overlooking it.

Each time a class changes on the finish list on that course, then a new class is created.

If I am missing something on the online upload process, then I would love to know the trick.

If it's possible, I would definitely prefer seeing splits by course -- mainly because my class / category usually only has one or two other runners in it, and I'm more interested in how I compared to everyone overall on the same course.

vmeyer says: I don't see that the Barebones have been created in any format but by Class. Could you post a link if I am overlooking it.

Adrian replies: You are right. I am getting RouteGadget & WinSplits confussed. Sorry for the false hope. I always create the RouteGadget event with splits by course (where I have an option). For Barebones what I do is provide the textual splits online by course while WinSplits indeed seems to insist on 'by class' reporting

Valerie, I don't know who did it or how, but the BOK Umstead 2007 results are in WinSplits by class and course.

Yes, Adrian, it occurred to me last night that it was probably RG you were thinking of.

I have occasionally taken the time to edit the splits file and change everyone's Class field to a course name and have uploaded that. But I don't often feel like doing the fiddling. A macro of some sorts would be in order, at least for the events I do, because I keep the information the same from event to event.

Or I can send the files to someone else to fool with. Any takers? :)

[Edit: There are actually two ways to achieve this. One is to edit the CSV file, and the other is to make a copy of the event file in the Sport software and then go in and do a procedure to move each class to a combined class. A bit tedious since it needs to be done for each stage.]

Valerie -- I'd be happy to manipulate the CSV file, since I'm one of the ones most interested in seeing course-specific comparisons.

I think an Excel VLOOKUP function could assign a course for each class pretty easily, once I set up the course/class matrix (which I think I actually already have somewhere...)...

OK, I have posted RG for Saturday and Sunday by Course - someone else needs to post the links... :) I was able to copy and paste the Course & No. fields to the Class & No. fields. Easy enough.

However, I was not successful with doing the same exact process with the Sprint results. The file was rejected on the upload. This is why I stopped trying to do this in the past. The file I use for WS is a CSV, semicolon, and quote delimited. Once I take it into Excel and do the Copy and Paste, it seems like sometimes the comma delimited created from Excel uploads and sometimes it doesn't. Once I figure out what works every time, then it is a very simple process.

Wow I wish I could sound as smart as you guys ;-)
In any case, I vote for course as well, as it's fun to compare wtih all of the other people on the course, not just the handful of women in my category.
Having said that, I'm not split addicted enough to justify spending $80 on a software that compares splits - heck, I'd much rather make another fashion purchase.

Wouldn't it be possible to have results on Winsplits by both course *and* class by having each participant entered twice: once with the class in the class field, and again with the course in the class field. This should be straightforward using Excel.

Fashion for $80? You've got a secret.

Yeah, course is better because with class, there are less people to compare to. Course comparison makes it easier to see where you fit into the general scheme of things.

Hey Boris, any chance the WinSplits authors would add a 'by course' feature to the web version?