Sussex Analysts iBase DatabaseIV - Notebook Time/Date Analysis

Analysts Notebook - Time and Date Analysis

Step 1 - Import Data (from a Spreadsheet)

Entities can be imported to i2 Analysts Notebook from any spreadsheet.

Note: In order to enable analysis options for time and date, these should be separate columns within the source data (although these can be split during the import process).

1.From the Menu select Data Import From File

2.Select your file and work through the Import Specification Wizard.

2a.If the Date and Time are in the same column, then these can be split during the Column Actions page of the Import Specification Wizard.

a.Add a new column (for the separated Date value) by Clicking on the New… button

b.In the New Column dialog box, type the field name (Date), select the Date/Time field and click OK.

c.Scroll to the far right of the Data Preview Pane and select the Date Column

d.In the Actions Pane select Extract Portion of Text as an applied action. Edit the options so that only the date is included in the field

e.Repeat steps A through D above to create a new Time field.

3.Import Specification Wizard - Assign Columns.

This step defines how each line of data will be represented within Analysts Notebook. For each available Notebook field, it is possible to select corresponding values from your data. The following are the minimum required for Time and Date Analysis:

  1. The Identityshould be distinct/different for each row of data (so one entity is generated per event). This can either be a unique identifier, or a combination of fields that will result in a unique value.
  2. The Date and Time fields must be populated with data from your source.

Notes:

- The icon for your entities can be changed using the Type field.

- Additional data can be added using Cards or Attributes.

3.When you have completed working through the Import Specification Wizard, Importyour data.

It does not matter whether your data is displayed as an association chart, a timeline, or a series of unconnected entities. The important thing for analysis is that each entity contains Date/Time data.

Step 2 - Analyse Your Data

i2 Analysts Notebook has lots of analytical functionality. The following steps will show you a quick way to view the date and time data present on a notebook chart. Once you are familiar with the simple methodology, you should be encouraged to experiment with the different options available.

1.The analytical functionality that is used in this section is under the Filters and Histograms tab of the Notebook Task Pane

2.Display a graph (histogram) showing the number of events by time period:

a.Expand the Entity Date & Time options

b.Select Hour of Day (As Histogram), clicking on the “Histogram” text

3.Expand the graph to include a second time period and a frequency table by selecting Date & Time: Day of Weekfrom the HeatMatrix dropdown.

4.The HeatMatrix can be customised to adjust the type of range used, and to alter the colours displayed.

Step 3 - Export HeatMatrix Table

In order to use the HeatMatrix data table within an analytical product, you will need to Copy it from i2 Notebook.

1.Expand the HeatMatrix options by clicking on at the top-right of the HeatMatrix pane:

Selecting Copy as Picture will add labels to the display, which may be suitable for pasting directly into a Word document:

If you with to manipulate the data in Excel - to display only a subset of the data, or to manually adjust the colour ranges, for example - then select Copy as Text.

Open Excel and Paste the data into a worksheet.

Note that the data has no formatting - this has to be applied manually or with Conditional Formatting.

Sometimes the HeatMatrix and Excel table present data on different axes (as in the examples above). If you wish to change the orientation of the data in Excel you will need to:

  1. Paste the data into Excel and then make a fresh Copy of it
  2. Select a cell in a new worksheet or in a blank area away from any existing data
  3. On the Menu select Edit Paste Special, and then select Transpose in the Paste Options menu.

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Author Ben Pawley

Version 1 - November 2012