![excel file metadata or latent data excel file metadata or latent data](https://resources.qiagenbioinformatics.com/manuals/clcmgm/current/importmetadatabasicstep2.png)
Neither are really ideal: see Approach 5 for what is better.Ĭlick here for an interactive tutorial on adding data setsĪpproach 4: Importing one or more tables from a SQL database Each column represents a variable, and in this example these contain numbers and/or text. The columns represent a unique ID number, and other characteristics of the survey respondents such as their age, education, and employment status. The example here is a very small data set involving 10 people who completed a survey. Each column represents some property of the individual cases.Examples are customers in a customer database, or respondents in a database of survey responses. Each row represents the data for an individual case or observation.Most commonly, it will be an Excel or CSV file with all the data in a single sheet. A flat data file, commonly referred to as raw data, has the following properties: The most practical approach for many data science problems is to import a flat data file. This is done by selecting Insert > Data > Data Set. This is basically the same as typing data in, and so it is appropriate if you are pasting a summary table, but is not a smart way to go if you have raw data. Selecting Home > Data > Paste Table, and then clicking Paste or type data, will allow you to paste in data. Where you have a choice of inputting tables or raw data, you should generally choose the raw data, as you will have a lot more flexibility in terms of what analyses you can create. However, if your data consists of a whole lot of raw data, like customer transaction data, survey responses, or web activity logs, you should use one of the other approaches. For example, if you have a table showing sales by product and by region, typing the data in, or pasting it in (see below), is appropriate. This approach is well suited to situations where you have a table of results that you want to format or analyze. Once you have entered the data, you can format it, chart it, or refer to it in calculations. You will get an Excel-like table that you can type into. To type in your own data, select Home > Data > Enter Table and then click on Paste or type data. However, in 99% of cases, the best approach is to either import a flat data file (approach 3) or a data file with metadata (approach 5). In this blog post I will give an overview of all of them. They range from cutting and pasting, through to writing advanced data queries in SQL and R. There are lots of ways to get your data into Displayr.