Excel import

The Excel Import dialog is shown when you open Microsoft Excel files using the installed Spotfire client. You can open Excel files using the web client too, but you will not have access to as many options to tweak the import.

Before you begin

Make sure that your worksheet only contains one data table. If the worksheet contains more than one data table, your data might not be displayed correctly. See also Data preparation in Microsoft Excel.

Procedure

On the authoring bar, click Files and data .
In the Files and data flyout, click Browse local file.
Browse to a Microsoft Excel file and click Open.

If needed, you can change the settings in the dialog to get the data imported the way you want it.

Option	Description
Worksheet	Select the worksheet containing the data you wish to import. Note: If you cannot see all worksheets available in the file, try saving and closing the file in Excel before you open it in Spotfire.
Refresh	Updates the Data preview field to reflect any changes made to the settings.
Ignore empty rows	Select the check box to skip empty rows during import.
Data preview	Shows how the file will be interpreted, given the specified settings. Name – Double-click on a column name to edit the name. Type – Change the type for a column by clicking on the arrow and selecting the new type from the drop-down list. See Data types for information about available data types in Spotfire. If an inapplicable data type is selected, the data in the preview will be shown in italics when you have clicked on the Refresh button. Included – Clear the check box to ignore a specific column upon import.

The drop-down list available on each row contains the following options:

Option	Description
Name row	Select this option on the row or rows that will be used to specify the column names in the imported data. Important: In your Excel file, the row with column names (name row) must come before the row that specifies the column data types (type row).
Type row	Select this option on the row that will be used to specify the data types.
Data row	Select this option for all data rows that you wish to import.
Ignore	Select this option for rows that should be ignored during import.

Tip: Select multiple rows in the data preview field and right-click to show a pop-up menu where you can select Ignore or Set as Data Row for several rows at a time.

When you are done, click OK.