Uploading Data
Explore Analytics makes it easy to upload data in CSV Format. If you have data in Excel, you'll first need to save it as a CSV file using Excel.
Automatically Detecting File Properties
Explore Analytics automatically detects the following properties of the file being uploaded.
- Compression - the CSV file may be compressed in ZIP format. In that case it will be automatically uncompressed during the upload.
- Encoding - text in the CSV file may use any character encoding including encoding for Latin languages, Asian languages or the universal Unicode encoding.
- Delimiter - CVS files may use a comma to delimit (separate) fields, however a Tab, space, vertical bar or semicolon may also be used as a delimiter.
- Field Names - the first line in the CSV file may contain field names; however, a CSV file is valid even if it does not contain field names. This is automatically detected and if column names are absent, you will be prompted to provide them during the upload.
- Field Types - the following types are automatically detected:
- datetime - date or date and time
- decimal - decimal number. The number could be formatted (e.g., $1,234.10) or unformatted (e.g., 1234.1). A wide variety of localized formats are automatically detected
- integer - integer number
- text - text or any character data such as codes or abbreviations
- Use of double quotes - double quotes may be optionally used to enclose fields that may contain the delimiter character. For example, if the delimiter is a comma, the text "1,234.00" is enclosed in double quotes.
When you select a file to upload, it is analyzed to determine whether your review is required. If your review is not required, you can still choose to review and make adjustments to properties that were detected by selecting "Review and make changes" in the upload dialog.
Creating a Table
When the file is successfully uploaded, a new table is created in the Explore Data Source. The Explore Data Source is the name of the Data Source that holds the tables that you upload to Explore Analytics. The table has a name. By default the name is the same as the name of the file being uploaded, however you can change it to any name. You can also specify a description of the data in the table.
You can upload data into an existing table. In that case, specify the name of an existing table and you can choose to either replace the existing data with the uploaded data, or add the existing data to the uploaded data.
If the name of the file being uploaded is the same as the name of an existing table, but you want to create a new table for the data being uploaded, then simply give the table a new name and proceed to upload the data into the new table.
Dealing with Size Limits
- Upload size limit - each upload is limited to a maximum uncompressed size of 5MB.
- Storage limit - the total amount of storage that you can use at any time is limited based on your subscription license. This is measured by the total size of data uploaded.
- Tables limit - the number of tables that you may have in the Explore Data Source at any time is limited based on your subscription license. You can delete old tables to make room for new ones. This limit does not apply to external data sources.
