Organise and Filter Data

Organise and Filter Data

The Raw Data panel shows your input data in what is termed a grid view (See also Grid Views). There are several tools within the grid view to assist you in viewing and organising this data in the grid, all of which are accessible via right-click menus. Different right-click menus are available depending upon where you click in the Raw Data panel. For the most part, the functions are applicable only a specific column of data. Many of these functions can also be performed using mouse clicks. By default, the Group By Box is hidden from view.

Right-click on the...

Individual Column Header

Column Header dragged to the Group By Box

Group By Box

Raw Data Panel Header
       

 

Organise Your Data

Maximize view

The Step 2 Window of the Import Routine has been sized to fit within a standard laptop screen. To increase the size of this window:

  • Click Maximize in the top right hand corner of the Step 2 window.
  • Hover the cursor over the splitter bar between the Raw Data panel and the Field Mappings panel. The cursor will appear as  at which time you can drag the position of the splitter bar down to increase the size of the Raw Data panel.

Heading order

Field names are presented as headers taken in order from the raw data file. To change your heading order:

  • Click on a column header then drag and drop it sideways to its new position.
  • Alternatively select Column Chooser, to reorder your column headers. This is particularly useful when you have a large number of input fields, and wish to change their order of appearance in the datasheet. Drag and drop the column headers into the Customise Window, then when ready, drop the columns back onto the datasheet in the desired order.

Column width

The column widths are set to Best Fit (all columns) by default. To alter the column widths:

  • Hover the cursor over the join between column headers. The cursor will change to a  upon which you can drag the cursor left or right to change the column width.
  • Select Best Fit to adjust the width of the column to accommodate the maximum width of the field's data.
  • Select Best Fit (all columns) to adjust the width of all columns to that which best accommodates the data.

Sort data

Data order is that of the raw data file. To sort your data:

  • Left-click a column header to sort the data by the ascending order  (first click) and the descending order  (second click). Toggle between the two choices.
  • Alternatively select Sort Ascending or Sort Descending from the right-click menu.
  • Select Clear Sorting from the right-click menu to restore the column of data to its original order.
  • Order by more than one column of data, with the data sorted in order from first column selected through to the last. This can only be accomplished by selecting the sort order from the right-click menu of each column of data in order of preference.

Group data

Data grouping can be used to sort the data into groups with the same input field value, whether this be a variable value, a date or a time. By default, the Group By Box is hidden from view. To group your data:

  • Right-click on a column header and select Group By This Column. The column header will appear in the Group By Box above the datasheet and the data will be sorted into groups of the same data value. These groups are shown in bold.
  • Once the Group By Box is displayed, your can drag and drop a column header into the box to sort the data into groups.
  • Multiple groupings can be made, with data sorted in the order in which you drag or select the column headers. Drag headers about to change the ordering.
  • Right-click in either the column header within the Group By Box or the Group By Box itself to remove the column header.

Groupings can be expanded or collapsed to further interrogate the data.

  • Within the datasheet, click  to expand a group and  to collapse a group.
  • To fully expand or collapse the data, right-click in the Group By Box and select Full Expand or Full Collapse.

Remove data

All raw data from Step 1 is shown by default. To remove data:

  • Click on the Column header and drag and drop it from the raw data panel.
  • Alternatively select Remove this Column from the right-click menu.
  • If you mistakenly remove a column of data, click Column Chooser. Columns that you have removed appear in the customisation window. Double click the column name to return the panel.

 

Filter Data

Filtering is a quick and easy way to define and then import a subset of data. You can use standard filtering to import only the rows that meet the criteria you specify for a particular column or columns.

  1. Hover the mouse over a column header to show the filter icon .
  2. Hover the cursor directly over the icon and click on it to open a drop-down list of filter options.
  3. The standard options are Custom, Blanks, and Non Blanks. The other options are any of the unique data values within that column. The option of All appears after the first filter is applied.

Use

To return

All

all rows

Custom

all rows meeting the criteria you specify for that column

Blanks

only the rows containing blank data values in that column

Non-Blanks

only the rows containing non-blank data values in that column

Unique data value

all the rows containing the specified data value in that column
  1. The filter icon will be greyed out to show that filter conditions have been applied.
  2. When you select Custom from the drop down filter menu, the Custom Auto Filter Window appears.                                                    
  3. Click the first arrow to display the drop down menu options for filtering either numeric and text values.
  4. Select a filter descriptor from the drop down list. 
  5. Enter an appropriate value in the box on the right. 
  6. If you need to find values that share some characters (whether text or numeric) use the like or not like options in conjunction with either " _ " or "%":

Use

To stand in for

_ (underscore)

any single character

  • eg, " 8_ " will find "81", "82", "83", "8B" etc
  • eg, "8_ _" will find "845", "87A" etc
  • eg, "T_" will find "TP", "TN", "T3" etc

% (percent)

any number of character

  • eg "8%" will find "81", "82456", "8B" etc
  • eg "fish%" will find "fish", "fished" "fishing", "fishA1" etc
  1. To add another criteria, click AND or OR, and repeat the previous step.
  2. The top of drop-down list of filter options is subsequently populated with the most recent values selected. Click to remove these searches.
  3. Click on the greyed out filter icon and select All from the drop down list to remove the filter condition.

Note

Blanks and Non Blanks options are available only if the column you want to filter contains a blank cell

 

 

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