Importing your data from a file

You can import and report on personalized data from various data sources, such as a text, Excel (that is, .xls or .xlsx), or comma-separated value (that is, .csv) file from your computer. You can also import data from a database or custom database query (that is, Freeform query).

Pre-requisites:

• Your data must be in xls, .xlsx, .csv, or .txt file format.
• In .xls, .xlsx, or .csv files, determine whether the data for a column is numeric or textual. If a column contains any non-numeric value in its cells, use a text data type. If all values in the column are numeric, use a numeric data type.
• Since you are creating a heat map visualization in the next section, the import file must contain one to two business concepts (that is, attributes), such as Region or Category, and two business measures (that is, metrics), such as Profit or Revenue.
• The first worksheet in an .xls or .xlsx file cannot be empty.
• Both .txt and .csv files must contain comma-separated values and use either UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32 encoding.
• .csv files can only contain one worksheet.
• Leave cells empty to represent NULL values.

To import your data from a file:

1. Open a blank dossier.
2. Choose Add Data > New Data. The Data Sources dialog opens.
3. Click File From Disk.
4. Click Choose files.
5. Navigate to and select the file(s) to import.
6. Click Prepare Data.

If the file is an Excel workbook with more than one worksheet of data, the Select Worksheets dialog opens. Select the worksheets to import and click Select.

If the tables on each Excel worksheet have the same set of objects, the Partitioned Tables dialog opens. You can choose to group the data into a single table or keep the tables separated by worksheet. Click Yes to group the tables or No to keep them separated.

The Preview Dialog opens. The system converts each file to a separate table. The top pane contains a table view, while the bottom pane contains a view of the data in the selected table. MicroStrategy Web uses the first row of data as headers for the columns. These column headers appear as the names of the metrics and attributes that you define. A metric is a business measure or key performance indicator (that is, Revenue, Profit, Employee Headcount, Probability of Purchase, etc.). An attribute is a business concept (that is, Product, Employee, Month, etc.). Attributes provide content for metrics.

7. In the top pane, select the drop-down arrow next to a table name and choose Parse. The Parse Your Data Dialog opens.
8. Confirm the Tabular radio button is selected. MicroStrategy Web assumes your data is stored in a simple tabular layout by default.
9. If the data in the import file does not include column headers for the data columns, select the Insert new column headers checkbox. A default column header appears for each data column. You can rename the new column headers on the Preview dialog.
10. Click Apply to return to the Preview dialog.
11. On the Preview dialog, right-click a column name and choose Rename to rename it.
12. Right-click a column name and choose Convert to Metric or Convert to Attribute to change either an attribute to a metric or a metric to an attribute.
13. If your data contains different forms of the same attribute in separate columns, you can create a multiform attribute to combine the forms into a single attribute. Press and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple columns in the top pane, right-click, and select Create Multiform Attribute.
14. Right-click a column name and choose Change Data Type to change the data type to one of the menu options (for example, Phone Number, Email, DateTime, etc.).
15. Right-click a column name and choose Define Geography to assign a geographic role using one of the menu options (for example, Latitude, Longitude, City, etc.).
16. Right-click a column name, in either pane, and choose Do Not Import to remove it from the import.
17. Click Finish to close the Preview dialog and import your data. Your newly imported data appears in the Datasets panel.