Creating a new analysis from a local file

You can create new analyses from files that are saved locally on your computer.

About this task

This topic describes how to create an analysis based on a Microsoft Excel Workbook, but you load data from other file formats in a similar way.

You can create new analyses from locally saved files of the following file formats: Microsoft Excel Workbooks (.xlsx, .xls), Microsoft Excel Binary Workbooks (.xlsb), Microsoft Excel Macro-Enabled Workbooks (.xlsm), comma separated values files (.csv), text files (.txt), logfiles (.log), Spotfire Text Data Format files (.stdf), Spotfire Binary Data Format files (.sbdf). You can also open locally saved Spotfire analysis files (.dxp), but then you will not create a new analysis; instead an existing analysis will be opened.

Tip: To interpret the Excel worksheet correctly, you may need to make some data preparation before loading it.

Procedure

In the library, click New analysis.
In the Files and data flyout, click Browse local file and locate the data of interest.

Tip: You can add several local data files simultaneously.
Select the file, and click Open.

If your Excel Workbook contains more than one worksheet, the Select worksheet dialog is shown. In the dialog, select which worksheet to load, and then click OK. Only one worksheet can be loaded at a time.

If you cannot see all worksheets at this step, try saving and closing the file in Excel before you open it in Spotfire.

The selected data is added to the summary view in the flyout.
In the flyout, you can change the name of the new data table. Click OK when you are satisfied.

Dragging a file to the browser

Alternatively, you can add data from a local file by dragging a file to the library or to an analysis.

If the file is an Excel Workbook with more than one worksheet, select the worksheet as described above.

What to do next

The loaded data can be visualized either using recommendations based on selected columns in the Data in analysis flyout, or, you can start by selecting specific Visualization types, or, Explore by searching to find data and features.