Dataviewer: Specifications for Importing Data Tables from Excel

Data imported from Excel into DataViewer must adhere to certain specifications

There are several things to be mindful of when importing data sets into Dataviewer. 

Rules and Restrictions for Importing Microsoft Excel Files

• Only .xlsx files are supported.
• Files must be smaller than 300MB in size.
• Only the first sheet of the spreadsheet is imported.
• The spreadsheet’s first row (from cell A1) should be filled with the column headings.
• Data should begin in the second row (from cell A2).
• Data should be fully un-pivoted.
• Dates should be in full date format, e.g. 01/01/2001.
• Empty cells should be blank, rather than 'n.a.' or 'unspecified' etc.
• A column must contain data within the rows.
• A column’s data type within the Dataviewer (e.g. count, string or date/time) is inferred from the data in the column.
• Individual columns should only contain one data type. If a column type is set to ‘count’, for example, then every cell in that column must contain a number. Any cells within that column containing text, a date or no value at all will be converted to the default value.
• The default values are as follows:
  
  

Any values in a column that do not match the specified column type will be changed to the above values. The first 1000 changes are listed after the table has been imported.

Excel formatting is ignored, but formatting options are available for the various data types within the Dataviewer. For example: