Work with column data¶
Data Prep provides many methods for working with columns. The topics in this section describe the operations you can perform on column data, for example, highlighting and changing values, finding and replacing values, and filtering your data. To do so, you work with the Filters pane, the View Columns pane, and the column operations available in the menu above each column.
Tip
This section covers working with column data. To manage whole columns, use the columns tool on the project Tools bar. The columns tool lets you update column names, change the order of columns, and remove them from the project. See Update columns for details.
Filters pane¶
The Filters pane displays Data Filtergrams for selected columns. A Data Filtergram is a combination of a filter and a histogram. In this example, function is a text column and annual salary is a numeric column:
Click Filters on the top-right of the data preview pane to display the Filters pane. See Data Filtergrams to learn more.
View Columns pane¶
The View Columns pane displays the column types and lets you hide columns. In this example, the team matrix column is hidden:
Click Columns on the top-right of the data preview pane to display the View Columns pane. See Hide columns to learn how to use the View Columns pane to remove columns from the data preview pane. To remove columns permanently from the project, use the columns tool.
Column operations¶
You access most of the tools for operating on column data in the menu above each column:
These pages describe the column operations:
| Topic | Describes... |
|---|---|
| Transform data types | Learn how Data Prep identifies and transforms data types. |
| Change column values | Change values in columns, for example, by changing cases, changing data types, trimming spaces, and managing blanks. |
| Find and replace in columns | Find and replace text within a single column or multiple columns. |
| Hide columns | Hide columns to create a personal view or to prepare to publish an AnswerSet. If you want to actually remove columns, see Update columns. |
| Filter data | Explore and filter your data using Data Filtergrams. |
| Detect and transform date formats | Learn how to work with date formatting in Data Prep. |
| Split columns | Split columns based on specified character strings, character count, or regular expressions. |
| Fill columns | Populate blank cells within a column based on the known values directly preceding or following the blanks. |
| Normalize using cluster and edit | Normalize data and identify inconsistencies and errors in a column. |
| View column lineage | Identify the project steps that resulted in the selected column. |