Additional Guidance: Creating Datastream Tickers

Creating Datastream tickers makes it easier to gather data from Datastream for multiple companies simultaneously. Datastream uses tickers that are similar to NYSE and NASDAQ tickers, but are unique.

To convert NYSE tickers (which are 3 characters or fewer) or NASDAQ tickers (which are 4 characters or more) into Datastream format do the following:

Step One:

Create an Excel spreadsheet with the NYSE/NASDAQ tickers in column B.

Step Two

Depending on where the tickers were obtained, it may be necessary to remove hidden space characters. Use the TRIM function to ensure an accurate number of characters in each ticker cell are recognized.

In column C insert the following function where B2 is the cell of a normal ticker: =TRIM(B2)

Step Three:

Use the LEN function to determine the number of characters in each ticker cell.

In column D insert the following function where C2 is the cell of a trimmed ticker: =LEN(C2)

Step Four:

Now a function is needed that looks at the number of characters in each ticker cell and inserts u: in front of the NYSE tickers and @ in front of the NASDAQ tickers.

In column E insert the following function: =IF(D2>3,"@"&C2,"u:"&C2)

Column E should now contain tickers in Datastream format. The finished spreadsheet should look similar to this:

The Datastream tickers can be pasted into the Code Lookup column of a New Request Table. See instructions for Requesting Bulk Data from Datastream for more information.