Sorry for the confusing title but here is a short summary....

I'll be receiving an Excel file with a field that combines a product name and description.

So for example, column A might be:

RedGrill-Large Stainless Steel Grill with red paint

I want to use SSIS to import this file into a SQL table and I want to match this "RedGrill" product name with the corresponding record in an inventory table so I can bring some additional data into this new record I'm creating.

Here are the problems/variables that I'm not sure how to deal with:

1. the product names have lengths that vary from 3char to 15char
2. there is potential for a product name to contain a hyphen
3. there is potential for a description to contain a hyphen

In my example above I used a hyphen to separate the product name from the description but that doesn't seem like it would work considering the variables and that is where I am stuck. I could use another character or spacing instead of a hyphen but I don't know what to use.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!