Replacing a data table

You can replace a data table in your analysis with data files that are saved locally on your computer, or, you can use data that has been previously saved to the library.

It is possible to reuse the visualizations, calculations and setup from a previously created analysis with new data, as long as the new data is reasonably similar to the old data. If the new data differs much from the previous data you may need to recreate new visualizations from scratch.

Local data files to be used can be in different 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), TIBCO Spotfire Text Data Format file (.stdf) and TIBCO Spotfire Binary Data Format file (.sbdf).

Data from the library can be .sbdf files, which have been previously saved to the library using Spotfire Analyst.

Prerequisites

You must have some data loaded in the analysis, the analysis must be in Edit mode, and the Data panel must be shown.

Procedure

  1. In the Data panel, click on the Expand data panel for tools and details button, Expand data panel for tools and details..
  2. In the data table view of the expanded data panel, click the Replace data table button, .
  3. Choose the source type, browse to, and select the data you want to use.

Result

The data table is replaced with new data.

Example: Replacing sales data for a new month

Replacing is useful when creating an analysis for, say, sales figures for a certain month. You can create a full analysis using the data from January, set up visualizations, calculations, etc., and save the file.

Sales data for January

When the sales figures for February are available, you can open the same file again, and, in the Data panel, replace the data from January with the data from February, and the visualizations will be updated.

Expanded data table button and replace data button.

Select from where to fetch the new data.

Select source.

If you use a local file, such as a Microsoft Excel Workbook, you may need to specify which worksheet to use before the data is replaced.

Sales data for February.

This of course requires that the data table for February is structured in the same way as for January, using the same column names and format. If the column names should differ, you need to modify the visualizations to use the new column names after the data has been replaced.