This section discusses how to manipulate static graph data in Corda® Builder™. If the graph is used as part of an Image Template file with Corda Server™, the static data is used for sample or design purposes only, and dynamic data is supplied when the Image Template file is published with Corda Server.
This section includes the following topics:
When creating a graph, Corda Builder inserts sample display data. Use Corda Builder's Data Editor to edit/replace this data with some that better reflects potential live data for the graph.
To open the data editor, select a graph, then select Properties > Data Editor; or right-click a graph and select Data Editor.
The Data Editor lets you manipulate graph data in a spreadsheet-like interface to add, edit, and identify what data to include in the graph. Add data to the Data Editor by copying data from an existing data source, or by entering the data manually.
To create graphs using data from an existing data file, such as a spreadsheet or word processing application, copy that data to the clipboard and paste it into the Data Editor. To use data from an HTML table in a Web page, first copy the contents of the table to a spreadsheet, then copy the contents from the spreadsheet to Corda Builder.
If data is not contained in a spreadsheet or table, create the graph by entering the data manually.
To manually enter data
Open the Data Editor.
Select the cell where you want to enter the data.
Enter the first value and press <Tab> or <Enter>.
<Tab> moves to the next column; <Enter> moves to the next row. You can also use the arrow keys to navigate.
As you move to the next cell, the graph preview at the bottom of the Data Editor changes to reflect the new data.
To clear data from one or more Data Editor cells, select the cell(s) and press <Delete>. To clear all data from the Data Editor, select a single cell and click the Clear All button.
When you are done entering data, click OK to save the settings.
The building block of every graph is a data item. Data items vary depending on the graph. For example, a data item in a bar graph is a single data value represented as a bar. A data item in an X-Y bubble graph, however, consists of three data values—an X-value, a Y-value, and Bubble value. Grouped together, all of the data items in a graph can be referred to as a data set.
Corda Builder groups data sets into series and categories. Typically, series correspond to rows and categories to columns on a spreadsheet, although some graphs may transpose the rows and columns.
All data items in a specific data series are displayed in the same color. In line graphs, they are also connected by a line. The series is generally the data that you want to emphasize and the series title appears in the legend. Each item in a series of data belongs to a different category. All items in the same category are grouped together in the graph; the category titles appear in the category scale. The following image illustrates the roles of series and categories of data in creating a graph.
For all variations of Bar, Line, and Radar graphs, insert data in the Data Editor as shown in the example above. Pie graph data is similar, but only has one category. Pareto graph data only has one series. The data in more complex graphs, such as box plot, stock, X-Y, and time plot graphs, is organized somewhat differently, though the basic concept of series and categories remains the same. To learn exactly how to organize data for these graph types, see Data Organization in the Corda 7 Graph Guide.
Consider the following example of gathering statistics on a specific college exam: There are three versions of the exam (Test 1, Test 2, and Test 3), along with data about the results of each exam for four students: Amy, Randy, Trevor, and Mary. The graph should represent all this information, and show average test scores for each test and for each student. The graph data is extracted from the following spreadsheet:
Depending on the graph's purpose, either student scores for all tests, or average student score for a specific test can be emphasized in the graph by defining it as the series data. Since the source spreadsheet has test scores for each student in rows, Corda Builder uses these as series data by default. To change the focus of the graph to a student's scores across all three tests, select Series data in columns. The resulting graphs are quite different.
When importing data from an external application, the first column and row are assumed to be headings, and are used to create names for each category and series of data. The series names is used in the legend; the category names is used along the category scale. These values can be modified in the Data Editor as needed.
Note: Some graph types, such as X-Y or time plot, do not use categorical data. For these graphs, the concept of category names is not applicable, and the first row of the spreadsheet contains regular data.
Sometimes it is desirable to prevent certain data rows or columns from being graphed. Although removing those rows or columns solves the problem, this may not be an acceptable solution if the data set might be used in other situations. Instead, use the Data Editor to hide the rows and columns that should not be graphed by selecting the row or column and unchecking the Row Enable or Column Enable checkbox.
Since pie graphs have only one category of data, use the Data Editor to specify the data column used for the pie data. There are two settings in the Data Editor to accomplish this:
Column / Row for pie legend: Specifies which column (or row) of data to use for the pie graph legend. The pie legend and data can be the same column.
Column / Row for pie data: Specifies which column (or row) of data to use for the pie graph.
Transposing rows and columns effectively interchanges the series and category data in the graph. The Data Editor defaults to Series Data in Rows, which specifies that categories are represented by columns, and series are represented by rows. To transpose the graph data, select Series Data in Columns to specify that categories are represented by rows, and series are represented by columns.