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1. Using the 'Open' Button
or Menu
This is the quickest way of
accessing a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and allows viewing of the data
directly in the SHAZAM data editor. The data may be edited in-cell,
new variables generated and then saved back as an Excel file by clicking the 'Save' button.
Alternatively the file may be saved as a SHAZAM Data file by using the 'Save
As..' menu and selecting 'SHAZAM Data File' from the 'Files of Type'
listbox.
Once open the file may also
be added to the current project and automatically read into SHAZAM.
This will convert the file to a SHAZAM data file (.shd or .dat) so that it may be
used with maximum speed and efficiency and make it
available to be used with any commands entered in a Command Editor window as
well as with the SHAZAM wizards.
Figure 1: Opening an
Excel Spreadsheet from the 'Open...' Button or Menu
After
opening
our traffic dataset of approximately 20,000 observations the dataset appears
in the data editor as:
Figure
2: Traffic Speed and Flow Data
Once
the spreadsheet has been opened, to add it to the current project click the
'Add' button and choose a filename. The spreadsheet is now
available for analysis.
Figure
3: Simple Analysis
We
use two SHAZAM commands to first calculate statistics on each variable and
then to perform a
simple OLS regression between speed and flow. Clicking the 'Run' button executes the
commands producing the output in a separate window within SHAZAM.
Because the GRAPH option was used Actual vs
Fitted and Residual graphs are produced as separate windows. If
desired, these items may be added to the current project so that they may be
edited and accessed easily.
2.
Using the Data Connector
The
Data Connector provides universal data access mechanisms using Microsoft® Active Data Objects (ADO) to connect to Local Machine, Network and Internet
enabled databases. A default set of drivers for a number of common data sources are installed with
SHAZAM Professional Edition, but additional drivers installed on the computer will be detected and displayed if supported.
Figure
4: Using the Data Connector
The
Connector uses a different method to open the dataset than the method of 1).
Once the connection, database and table choice have been made SHAZAM opens the entire table contents and displays the
default SQL (Structured Query Language) statement to do it. The SQL
statement may be modifed as required to narrow or widen the data selection. Clicking the play button executes the modified
statement allowing you to perform tasks such as data grouping in a fast and
efficient manner.
Figure
5: Executing a Custom SQL Statement
In
this example we modify the SQL statement to select quarter hour averaged
speeds for the first quarter hour past 8am on a Monday morning (day
2). The SQL query engine performs the quarter hour averaging of speeds
(measurements in the data were taken every 3 mins over a 4 month interval),
selects and groups the dataset of approximately 20,000 records to a final
set of 15 records.
With
the Data Connector you may switch between tables, select and group data before
importing it into SHAZAM with the 'Add' button to add it to the current project in the same way as for the previous method. The Data Connector
provides powerful features for the grouping and extraction of data and is
especially helpful for working with large datasets. SQL is the
Information Technology
industry standard for working with databases and SHAZAM extends that ability
to enable it to be used directly with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
3.
Cut and Paste into a Data Editor
A simple alternative to methods 1) and 2) is simply to open the Data Editor from the Data menu and
select 'New Dataset'. Enter the numbers of rows and columns of the dataset (including any header row) and click 'OK'.
Click the first cell and and click the 'Paste' button (or use CTRL-V on the keyboard).
To set any row as the header Row, select the row and use the 'Set As Header Row...' option from the Data menu or use the right mouse button menu.
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