Transforming Data


Sometimes the data you want to analyze in Spotfire is not in the most appropriate format, or may contain errors. It can therefore be useful to perform transformations on the data in order to get the best results from the analysis.

There are several methods that can be used to transform your data:

Transformations can be applied either when data is loaded, or later on, when the data has already been loaded into Spotfire. You can perform transformations on most of the "regular" column types that are loaded into Spotfire, but not on certain column types whose content changes depending on selections you make in the analysis. Calculated columns, columns that were created by adding tags to the analysis, and columns created by using tools like K-means Clustering and Line Similarity are some examples of column types that you cannot apply transformations to. Columns that cannot be transformed will not be available for selection in any of the settings dialogs used for transformations. Also, data that is located in an external data source (in-database data) cannot be transformed. However, if you add data from an external data source, and select to import the data table into Spotfire, you can apply transformations to the data after it has been loaded, by using Insert Transformations, as described below.

  1. Select File > Add Data Tables....

  2. Click Add and select the type of data to add from the drop-down list.

  3. Specify which file, information link, etc., to add.

  4. Comment: You can also apply transformations when you replace a data table and when you insert columns or rows to an already existing data table.

  5. Click Show transformations to expand the lower part of the dialog, where the settings for adding transformations are located.

  6. In the Transformations drop-down list, select the type of transformation you want to perform on the data.

  7. Click Add... to open a dialog with settings relevant for the selected transformation type. When you have specified the necessary settings, click OK to return to the Add Data Tables dialog.

  8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add more transformations.

  9. Tip: Click on the Preview button to see what the result will be with the added transformations.

  10. Click OK in the Add Data Tables dialog to load the data with the added transformations to the analysis.

  1. Select Insert > Transformations....

  2. Select the data table you want to add transformations to.

  3. In the Transformations drop-down list, select the type of transformation you want to perform on the data.

  4. Click Add... to open a dialog with settings relevant for the selected transformation type. When you have specified the necessary settings, click OK to return to the Insert Transformations dialog.

  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add more transformations.

  6. Tip: Click on the Preview button to see what the result will be with the added transformations.

  7. Click OK to apply the selected transformations to the data.

See also:

Details on Insert Transformations

Details on Show Transformation

Details on Add Data Tables

Details on Replace Data Table - Select Source

Details on Insert Columns - Select Source

Details on Insert Rows - Select Source