Working with Data Tables

When you set up an analysis in TIBCO Spotfire, you may want to be able to visualize data from more than one data table. Adding other data tables is fairly easy; just select File > Add Data Tables... and use the Add button to select the data source of interest. See How to Add Data Tables for more information. However, if you choose to bring in a lot of data tables, you may find it difficult to keep track of which data tables are related and which are not. Spotfire will add some extra visual hints when more than one data table is available to help you see which data tables are related. You may also want to view which data tables have matching columns and therefore can be combined in one visualization. Or simply view which data tables have already been combined in a certain visualization.

You can always get a collected view of all data tables in the analysis by selecting Edit > Data Table Properties or View > Data which opens the data panel.

To see which data table is the main data table in a certain visualization:

A visualization can combine data from many data tables, but one data table is always the main data table, and works as the anchor point in the data for the visualization. See Multiple Data Tables in One Visualization to learn more about using many data tables in one visualization.

Look for the data table selector in the legend of the visualization.

Comment: When a new data table is added, the default visualization created will normally show the legend with the data table selector visible. However, any old visualizations created before the second data table was added will not display their data table selectors automatically.
If you cannot see the data table selector in the legend, right-click in a white area of the legend and select Data table.
Alternatively, in the Visualization Properties dialog you can go to the Data page and directly see which data table is being used, or, you can go to the Legend page and display the legend and the data table selector by selecting the appropriate check boxes.

Comment: You can switch to a different main data table from the menu on the data table selector.

To view information about the active data table:

The status bar at the bottom of the TIBCO Spotfire application window displays information about the main data table used by the active visualization (the visualization that was last clicked upon).

The information displayed is:

the current number of filtered rows,
the total number of rows in the main data table (but if the data table is loaded on demand, then the number of currently loaded rows is shown),
the number of marked rows,
the number of available columns,
the name of the main data table in the active visualization.

Note that in-database data tables (external data) do not have access to the detailed information about rows and columns since the data shown in a visualization is aggregated by the external data source and not within Spotfire.

To see which visualizations are related:

Look at the color stripe on the left-hand side of the title bar for the visualizations. Visualizations using the same data table or related data tables will display the same color on the color stripe.

Comment: The true color of the color stripe is only visible for the active visualization and any related visualizations. All unrelated visualizations are shown with a gray color stripe until activated.
Click to activate a visualization using an unrelated data table.

Response: The visualizations working on the new data table get their relations color shown and the previously colored visualizations become gray.

To differentiate two data tables in the filters panel:

The filters from one data table are always grouped within a single data table group, which can be expanded or collapsed in the filters panel. Filters cannot be moved from one data table group to another. Note that no data table group headers will be shown for in-database data tables until filters have been created.

Look at the color stripe on the left-hand side of the filters.

Comment: Filters belonging to the same data table are marked with the same color stripe. The color used is identical to the color of visualizations that use the same data table. Only the filters belonging to the data table used by the active visualization or any related data table show their true color. Other filters have a gray color stripe. This is regardless of how filtering in related data tables has been specified (whether the filtering in related data tables affects the filtering in another data table or not).
Click to activate a visualization using an unrelated data table.

Response: The filters working on the new data table get their relations color shown and the previously colored filters become gray.

To see which data tables are related:

When more than one data table is available, a color stripe is added to the data table group and its subgroups and filters in the filters panel. If two data tables are related, they will have the same color in the filters panel. The currently active data table is written in bold typeface in the filters panel.

In the image above, the two data tables 'Sales Data' and 'Sugar Content' are related to each other (and the active visualization uses 'Sales Data'), whereas the 'Stores' data table is unrelated to the others. You can also check the relations between data tables in the Data Table Properties dialog:

Select Edit > Data Table Properties.
All related data tables will have the same relations color. On the Relations tab, you can change the relations color for a group of related data tables.

Comment: The relations color is used in the title bars of the visualizations as well as in the filters panel and in the Details-on-Demand. You can change the Relations color for all related data tables by selecting a different color from the drop-down list.

To change the way filtering in a related data table affects a data table:

Go to the filters panel and locate the data table header for the data table of interest.

Comment: Note that you need to specify how each data table should respond to filtering in all other related tables separately, to be certain of what will be shown in the visualizations after filtering.
Click on the Manage relations icon, .

Response: A drop-down menu is shown, where all related data tables are available.
Select the data table for which you want to change how the filtering should affect the current data table, and select one of the following options: Include Filtered Rows Only, Exclude Filtered Out Rows or Ignore Filtering.

Comment: See Filtering in Related Data Tables for more information about the different options.

To see which column matches exist in the analysis:

See To_view_the_current_column_matches_in_the_analysis.

To see which data tables are used in a visualization:

See To_view_the_current_column_matches_in_a_visualization.