Import data formats
Analyst's Notebook can import data from spreadsheet files, XML files, and from any text file in which each line describes a similar but discrete piece of information. For most formats, you create an import specification to describe how the data is interpreted as entities and links on the chart surface. Some formats are recognized by Analyst's Notebook and the data is imported without a specification.
Analyst's Notebook can import text and spreadsheet data in the following formats. To import data in any of these formats, you need to use an import specification to define the entities that are represented by the data and the links between those entities. An import specification might exist for the format you want to import, or you can create a new specification to interpret your data. You should convert XML data in to CSV or XLS format, or transform the data into ANX XML.
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
| Text files (.txt, .csv, .tsv) |
In text files that are suitable for import, the lines of data have a consistent format. The data for one item is never broken across lines. Data can be separated by tabs or with a syntactical separator such as a comma. Some text file formats are predefined, for example a tab-separated value file (.tsv) or a comma-separated value file (.csv). |
| Clipboard | Analyst's Notebook can import text data from the Windows clipboard in any of the supported formats. |
| Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file (.xls, .xlsx) | Analyst's Notebook interprets the rows and columns of a spreadsheet in the same way that it interprets the lines and separators of a text file. |
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
| Analyst's Notebook Exchange file (.anx) | Exchange files contain a standardized XML representation of the data on an Analyst's Notebook chart. |