I will use a software (Moodle BBB) for online classes next semester which allows me to get a .txt file with the names of all attendees sorted alphabetically. I will use this to determine attendance in synchronous activities.
I would like to use these files to get an Excel spreadsheet with the attendance record of all students.
One way which I think would be possible, but which I do not know how to implement, would be to just copy-paste the content of the .txt file in a column, representing the respective day, and order the entries of each column in such a way that each row only has the same name. Then I would just need to count how many entries a row has to determine how many classes the student attended.
But the problem is that some students will attend some classes but not others, so I could end up with a .txt file which looks like
Alice
Bob
Carl
David
and another one such as
Alice
Carl
David
so just copy-pasting these entries will not do: I need to add an empty entry in the second file, at the place of Bob.
How can I add empty entries in the correct positions?
I am also open to other suggestions on how to keep track of attendance using these .txt files.