Working with Data Sources

The Data Sources tree is where you import, navigate, and manipulate Data Set(s) and aggregated summary tables. 

This article covers the various parts of the Data Sources tree interface, and actions that are available. More specifically:

• Data Sources Interface
• Working with a Data Set
  • Right click variable set menu
  • Variable inserter menu
• Working with a summary table

Data Sources Interface

Before you add any data to your document, you will see an empty Data Sources pane with a + Add data button. You will click on the + Add data button or the circle + add a new data source button at the top of the pane to add data to your document to use in your report. There are various formats and sources of data that you can add, see Get Your Data Into Displayr for an overview of methods.

When you add a data source, it will be imported either as raw case-level data with variables or as a summary table(s) that is already calculated. The cylinder icon denotes data sets and the table icon denotes summary table sources.

When you select a data source name in the Data Sources pane, the object inspector will appear with properties for that specific data source. This is where you perform data source-level actions such as updating, setting a unique identifier, adding data source relationships, deleting and merging data, and selecting how different parts of your summary table are used. 

Once you've added a data source, more icons will become available:

• The magnifying glass at the top of the tree is used to search for variables across all data sources. 
• The circle plus icon is used to add a new data source.
• The three dots icon has a couple other options.
  • Show Names - shows each variable's unique underlying name alongside its label, making it easier to Find Variables in Displayr.
    
  • Collapse Data Sources - collapses all the data sources that are expanded in the pane.

Hovering exposes other icons:

• A triangle pointing right - means the item has items underneath and you can click to expand and view contents.
• 2 columns of dots - is where you can grab and drag to move items. 
• Hover preview dialogue - pops up to the right when hovering over an item. It gives you a quick glance at general information about the item you are hovering on, including a preview of the variable's data - if relevant.

Working with a Data Set

When data is imported as a data set, expanding the data set name will show you all variables including those found in the raw data file as well as constructed variables created within Displayr. When you right-click on the data set name, you can perform actions on the data set as a whole, including tidying and cleaning your data using the Data Preparation Agent. 

Even without running the Data Preparation Agent, Displayr will automatically assess the correct structure for each variable and group variables that should be analyzed together in to variable sets. Variable sets can have one or more than one variable (which are denoted by the right pointing triangle). Displayr has 13 variable set structure types, and a different icon is used to represent each structure. Hovering over a variable set gives you a preview of Type (Structure name), unique variable Name, Data Set name, Values, and their Labels. The Variable Sets article goes through working with variables in more detail. 

Right click variable set menu

When you right-click on a variable set, you can save and apply templates, rename, view in data editor, duplicate, move, delete, reset, split or combine, hide or unhide, sort, copy or paste labels, and view the Dependency Graph.

• Apply Template and Save as Template - saves or applies a Variable Set template to modify variables based on another similar variable. This will update properties such as variable Structure, combined categories and NETs, order, value labels, etc. 
• Rename - renames an item. The new name will automatically flow through to items in your document that use the variable set - unless you have manually renamed/overridden the name in a Table or output.
• View in Data Editor - opens the Data Editor pane and shows you the raw data for the variables selected. This feature allows you to modify the dataset in Displayr without altering the raw data file imported, see How to View or Edit Raw Data in Displayr. 
• Duplicate - copies the variable(s) so that you can modifying it without changing the original. With this, you can have two or more different versions of a question. Note that any manual changes to the original variable AFTER duplication do not flow through to the duplicated variable.
  
• Move - quickly organizes your variable sets. You can move selected variables (up one row, down one row, to top, or to bottom) or entire groups of variables (filters to top, weights to top, hidden questions to bottom).
• Delete - deletes variables you created in Displayr, such as filters, weights, duplicated variables, banners, and custom R and JavaScript variables. This will not remove original variables from your Data Set. See How to Delete Variables From Your Data Set. 
• Reset - resets modified variables to their original structure. 
• Split and Combine - modifies how variables are joined. Split will remove the selected variable(s) from the variable set. Combine can join variables as a set, as a single variable, or as a grid. More detail on these methods are in How to Combine and Split Variable Sets.
• Hide or Unhide - hides or unhide variable(s), unhide all questions, hide/unhide variable sets with many categories, or hide uninteresting data.
• Sort - sorts alphabetically by label, alphabetically by name, or by categories in variables in descending order (based on summary data).
• Copy Labels and Paste Labels - copies and pastes variable labels in bulk. This is used often when you want to modify lots of labels using a formula in Excel and then put those back into Displayr. 
• Dependency Graph - shows you a map linking all of the items in your Document that the current variable is based on or feeds into to better understand how data flows through your Document. See Viewing Dependency Graphs to Understand Calculations for more detail. 

Variable inserter menu

All of the options for creating new variables are in the variable inserter menu. Just hover over a variable set, and a + will appear on the right to click on to open it. A search bar and recommendations for data insertion features appear at the top based on what you have selected. Additionally, you'll be able to see Recent features used, create a Folder in your data set to organize variables, apply a template , or create new variables. 

There are various ways of creating new variables from the variable inserter menu:

• Banner - creates a special Banner variable set that allows you to show unrelated variables next to each other in a table. See How to Create and Customize a Banner for more detail.
• Calculate Across Variables - performs mathematical calculations (e.g., Average, Count, Divide, Sum, None of) across the selected variables for each case in your data set.
• Combine Categories - creates copies of variable sets selected with categories automatically combined. There are various options, by Geography (automatically merging smaller geographic regions into larger ones), by Pattern (based on how similar they are in distribution when compared to another variable), and by Combining Categories in NETs (creating a new variable with combined categories as the value to use as an adjustment variable in your weight).
• Convert To - transforms variable set(s)'s data automatically to create common types of variables (i.e. Top 2 Box, Bottom 2 Box), recode into new variables (i.e. create all category combinations and band numeric data), and restructure variables' (i.e. Split Grids by Rows or Columns and flatten grids).
• Custom Code - creates new variables via AI, JavaScript, R, and QScript. 
• Data Quality - options identify duplicate cases, impute missing data, identify inconsistent data, identify poor quality text, rebase multiple response data in variable(s) to NET, and remove outliers.
• Filter - creates a New filter variable using our filtering tool or automatically based on your use case (such as Filter One Variable Set by Another).
• Numeric Transformations - converts numeric data in various ways (i.e. category midpoints, log transform, NPS, scale, sentiment scores, and square root) into new variables.
• Text Categorization - uses the variables selected in the Text Categorization tool to classify text data both automatically using Displayr AI and manually if desired.
• Text Manipulation - translates text variables into a different language.
• Weight - opens the weighting tool where you can create a weight variable based on targets for other variables in your Data Set.

Working with summary tables as sources

When you import a table(s) of data that are already calculated and ready to be used in outputs, that type of data table is known as a summary table. 

There are two ways to do add this type of data source:

1. Paste or Enter Data - this works for one table at a time and shows up as summary.table.1 in the Data Sources pane. 
2. Import an Excel file of tables - this method supports multiple tables at a time and may automatically name those if titles are present in your file. Otherwise, they will come in named summary.table. 

When you right click on a summary table source you have options for:

• Rename - allows you to rename the source manually to a better name.
• Delete - deletes the source and removes it from outputs.
• Dependency Graph - shows you a map of all outputs and items that depend on the summary table so you can better understand what outputs rely on this source. See Viewing Dependency Graphs to Understand Calculations for more detail. 

Each summary table will have settings for which cells of data are present in the Data Source for title, data, and caption, as well as what cells are used for the Sub-Selection that is shown/used in outputs. See How to Import Excel Tables into Displayr for more detail.

If you pasted a table into the Report or Page directly, you will also have an output for the table. Otherwise, you can drag it from the Data Sources pane to the Report tree or on a Page to create an output. 

Next

Reporting Basics Video

Creating and Modifying Visualizations

Bespoke Analyses