Adding more data
Data can be added to the analysis in several different ways: as new columns, as new rows or as new data tables. All of these methods are available when you add data from the Files and data flyout. If Spotfire identifies that new data seems to fit in an already available data table, you might get a recommendation to add the data as new rows. However, you can always ignore the recommendation.
About this task
See also Choosing how to load the data.
Adding data as separate data tables is useful if the new data is unrelated to the previously opened data table or if the new data is in a different format (pivoted vs. unpivoted). Data can be added from local files on your computer, or from different types of data files that have been previously saved in the library using the Windows client. You might also have access to other data sources from where you can add data.
Data from different data tables can be viewed in the same visualization, provided that there is at least one column in both data tables that can be used to match the data from the two data tables. You can, of course, also create separate visualizations for different data tables.
In some cases, when you need to bring in-memory data from different data sources together in a single visualization, it may be more suitable to add columns or add rows to a data table, rather than keeping two different data tables.
Procedure
What to do next
If the data was added as new data tables, determine whether the new data tables should be related to each other or to previously added data tables. Remember that you must define a relation if the new data table is to be used to create details visualizations for the previously added data tables. Read more in Related data tables, joins and column matches.
- Related data tables, joins and column matches
Depending on how you access your data and which client you use, there are several different ways to link data from different sources together using Spotfire. With in-memory data, you can add new data as columns or rows to an existing data table. If you use data from data connections, you might be able to create a structural relation already on the database side, when creating the data connection. If you choose to keep your data as separate data tables in Spotfire, you can either create a relation between the data tables to support brush-linking, or, simply use columns from different data tables directly in a visualization, if they have at least one column match.