Splitting into Several Columns

This is the basic function to split a column into several columns. You can split a column by separators or value lengths.

Take the project in the Sample-patients dataset as an example. The VISIT column provides the visit date information of each patient. However, because the entire date information (month, day and year) is in one column, it is hard to display a facet that shows the statistics concerning the number of visits per month or per year.

To analyze the visits by year:

Procedure

  1. From the VISIT column menu, click Edit columns > Split into several columns.
  2. Click Separator and enter the forward slash (/) in the field next to the radio button. Click OK.
    The VISIT column is split into three new columns.

  3. Rename each of the new columns. From each column menu, click Edit columns > Rename columns.
    The new columns are renamed.

  4. From the Year column menu, click Facet > Text facet.
    The facet results panel shows the number of visits each year. It also shows the number of invalid year records.