How to View or Edit Raw Data in Displayr

This article describes how to view or edit raw data in the Data Editor in Displayr. A great feature of Displayr is that manual changes you make to the data set in Displayr are not changed in the raw data file that was imported. This allows you to revert any changes you make in Displayr without the worry of losing data or messing up your raw data file. Displayr maps what changes are made to specific records by using a Unique identifier, so you will not be able to edit or delete data in the Data Editor until you've selected one.

Requirements

• A Displayr document with an imported raw data file.
• To edit, insert, or delete data, you will need to first select your data set name in the Data Source section on the left and set the Unique identifier on the right to your unique ID variable or [Use case number].

 

Method - Viewing raw data

Select one or more variables (or combined variable set) in your Data Set, then right-click (on the selected variables) and select View in Data Editor.  

Alternatively, click the button in the object inspector with the same name, if you have a variable/variable set selected.

You can also use the button that appears on the preview tooltip when hovering over a variable or question. The Data Editor will appear at the bottom of the screen showing the raw variables that you have selected. You can drag more variables to it and can drag columns inside the Data Editor to reorder them as you like.

The column headers contain the 'names' (not labels) of the variables. The row headers contain the Raw Case Numbers. The rounded bars above each column show which Variables are grouped into Variable Sets. To toggle between showing raw values or labels, use the control at the right of the header of the Data Editor.

Method - Sorting raw data

1. Click the column header of the variable you want to sort by and use the sorting icons in the column headers to sort the data. The first time you click, that column will be sorted in Ascending order, the second time you click it will toggle to Descending, then a third click will reset it to not be sorted. You can sort by multiple columns in the order you activate their sorting.
   
   

Method - Editing raw data

You can edit individual data points for Duplicated or raw variables the Data Editor. More specifically, if a variable is created via the Filter tool, JavaScript code, or R code the logic/code needs to be amended to change a specific data point.

To edit an individual cell:

1. Double-click the cell (or click on a cell and press Enter).
2. Type the desired value.

To copy/paste values or ranges of values to/from Excel:

1. Right-click on an individual or range of cells.
2. Select Copy to copy as Values or Labels (based on the selection at the top right of the Data Editor).
3. Select Paste Data to update the values in existing variables. 

To paste new variables from Excel:

Note: To use this method, the pasted data from Excel must have the exact same number of records as your data set in Displayr. The data must also be in the exact same order.

1. In Excel, copy the cells that you want to insert into Displayr as a new variable.
2. In Displayr, right-click on a column header in the Data Editor.
3. Select Insert New Variable to add new variable(s) to your Data Source in Displayr. Note that Insert New Variable only appears in the menu if you've already copied values from Excel with the same number of rows as your data set. You can then use the new variable(s) as you would any other in Displayr.
4. OPTIONAL: If the data you are pasting does not have a column header, you will be prompted to assign a name to the variable.

Method - Find and replace

While the Data Editor does not have its own Find and Replace option, you can use the one that comes with the software. There isn’t a button within the editor to take you there, but you can use the keyboard shortcut ‘Ctrl + F’ or alternatively navigate to search in the navigation bar > this document.

In this demonstration, the data has a text variable that contains customer attitudes about various colas brands, in this case, Pepsi. Responses that contain the text are highlighted.

Method - Deleting cases/rows

To delete an individual row:

1. Right-click the row header and select Delete Row(s).

To delete multiple rows:

1. Ctrl-click each row individually to add them, or Shift-click to select a range of rows, and then right-click in a selected row and select Delete Row(s).

You can also delete rows that match a filter using the control near the right of the header of the Data Editor.

To use a filter to delete rows:

1. Select an existing filter (or create one in the Data Editor by selecting New), and the matching rows will be highlighted in green.
2. Right-click one of the matching rows, then select Delete Row(s) Matching Filter.
   
   

Publishing (or Exporting) Edited Data

If required you can publish a data file that reflects the edits made.

1. From the Share menu (top right of the screen) select Export Data.
2. Choose from the list of available formats.

If you want to export only the variables shown in the Data Editor, you:

1. Select all of the columns of data you want to export in the Data Editor.
2. Right click one of the variable names in the header and select Copy.
3. Paste into Excel or Notepad (the data will be tab delimited).

Next

Understanding Variable Sets

How to Export Specific Raw Data Values to Excel

How to Create a Raw Data Table From Variable(s)

How to Create Raw Data Tables From a Variable Set

How to Publish Data Files from Displayr