Importing text files

in an MS Excel spreadsheet

Wim Buysse – ICRAF-ILRI Research Methods GroupAugust 2004

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Importing text files: example

• GPS

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example weather station

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example light intensity meter

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example CO2 and

temperature meter

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example soil moisture logger

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example rain gauge

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example ICP mass

spectrometer

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Importing text files: example• Data loggers, example harvesters

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Avoid entering manually• Reading data from device and next typing in

spreadsheet = increasing chance of typing errors

• Reading data from device on the field, writing on a piece of paper, travelling all the way back to the office and typing in spreadsheet (often some days later) = almost impossible not to make some mistake

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Avoid entering manually• RULE = use cables and software to transfer data

from device to computer

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• example = logging data from GPS onto a laptop

Avoid entering manually

• Example of software (for logging GPS data)

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Text data files

• Result of logged data is quite often in ASCII text format

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Importing in MS Excel 2000

• File => Open gives you the “Text Import Wizard”

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Importing in MS Excel 2000• In this example, fields to import are separated by

commas. They are “delimited”

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Importing in MS Excel 2000• Choose the comma as delimiter in the second

screen

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Importing in MS Excel 2000• More options in the third screen

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Importing in MS Excel 2000• The data are imported in cells of an Excel spreadsheet.

Not a single typing error has been made!

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Some functions

• CONCATENATE() for merging text from several cells

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Some functions

• LEFT(); RIGHT() or MID() to extract a fixed number of characters from a specific position

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Some functions

• Result of

=RIGHT(B2, 3)

Is still text• Using the VALUE

function turns it

into figures

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Some functions

• It is possible to superpose a function on a function

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