Spreadsheet View allows you to browse through the entire dataset as a table, allowing you to see what columns you have in your dataset and what values those columns contain. Here, you can easily view data, configure data, and export data.

To access Spreadsheet View in Virtualitics Explore Desktop, click on the Spreadsheet View icon ( ) on the top left.

Viewing Data

• Viewing Rows

  • By default, Virtualitics Explore Desktop displays all rows of the currently active dataset in Spreadsheet View.

  • However, if you have hidden points in your current plot (for example, after applying a filter), you may want to examine only the visible points. In this case, click the drop-down under Rows Shown at the top of Spreadsheet View to choose between All Rows, Visible Rows, or Hidden Rows.
    
    

• Data Types

  • Virtualitics Explore Desktop categorizes your columns into types when you first load in a dataset. We call these categorized columns Features. 

    Note: A feature’s type determines which dimensions can visualize the feature, how data analytics tools interact with the feature, and how certain plot types display the feature.

    The available feature types and their icon representations are:

    Numerical		Contain a variety of unique numerical values
    Categorical		Contain a set of categories that are shared by multiple rows. Unique string identifiers are also represented as categorical. When plotting categorical features, up to 100 categories will be shown on the axis tick-marks. Can also include a numerical categorical, which is useful when numbers are included in a dataset but those numbers do not lend themselves to numerical analysis, such as unique person IDs or identifiers.
    Date		Contain only measurements of time. The cells must match an Accepted Date Format.
    URL		Contain only web links or links to the local file system. These links can be selected through the Point Info panel after selecting individual points in a visualization.

• Viewing Data in a One-Dimensional (1D) Histogram

  • The auto-generated 1D histogram located under the header in each column allows you to see the distribution of data in each column. Clicking the 1D histogram will bring up a detailed view of that data.
    
    

• Switching Between Loaded Datasets

  • To toggle between loaded datasets, in the left navigation bar under Loaded Files, click an alternative file to display.

Configuring Data

A few important pieces of maintenance may need to be performed for newly loaded datasets:

• Convert to Numerical/Categorical: Convert a feature from Numerical to Categorical or from Categorical to Numerical.

• Renaming Columns: Right-click on the column title, and then select Rename to change the name of the column.

• Pivoting: You can pivot any Categorical features by right clicking the column title, selecting Pivot, and then choosing how to pivot your data. This will create a new dataset with your pivoted data.
• Normalize: You can normalize the data in a Numerical feature by right clicking the column title,  selecting Normalize, and then choosing how you'd like to do so. This will create a new feature with that data.
• Functions: You can apply functions to a selected Numerical feature by right clicking the column title, selecting Functions, and choosing which function you'd like to apply. This will create a new feature with that data.
• Extract Quartiles: You can extract quartiles from data within a Numerical feature by right clicking the column title, selecting Extract > Quartiles. This will create a new feature with that data.

• Basic Data Cleansing: Virtualitics Explore Desktop recognizes empty cells as “Missing” and will handle them differently when doing calculations and visualizing those columns. However, some datasets define missing values in a different way, such as with the words “missing” or “N/A”. To have Virtualitics Explore Desktop recognize these as missing values, use the Find and Replace tool. 

Exporting Data

You can export your active dataset to preserve any modifications you’ve made to the dataset for future analysis. Simply click on the Export Dataset dropdown menu at the top of Spreadsheet View and choose your desired file format.

Video Tutorial