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Create pivot table by CSV

CSV (or TSV) file is a simplest data source in SeekTable: it is enough to click on Upload Data, choose a local file, and wait until file is uploaded. That's all: now you can create summary report (pivot table, chart) or view/filter/sort CSV data rows with usual grid-view ('flat table').

All parameters are detemined automatically:

CSV file may be compressed with zip or gzip, and this is only option if you want to upload large CSV file that is greater than upload limit (50Mb). Uncompressed CSV size might be up to 500Mb; SeekTable works fine with files of this size and pivot table generation should not take more than 5-10 seconds.

It is possible to define special expressions for custom handling of CSV values (parse timespans, apply replace rules etc).

Refresh CSV data

In some cases you might need to refresh saved pivot table reports by uploading newer version of the dataset. This is possible in one of the following ways:

Note: data refresh is possible only if new CSV file has the same columns as in old version of CSV file (with the same names, new columns are OK).

Calculated columns row-level expressions

It is possible to define expression-based (calculated) dimensions that are evaluated before aggregation step (on row-level). For example, if you have date column (say, "Some Date") it is possible to calculate quarter or day-of-week in the following way:

  1. add new dimension with Type=Field
  2. fill Name with some unique value: say, "Some Date (Quarter)" or "Some Date (DayOfWeek)"
  3. add one Parameter which should be an expression (syntax is the same as for calculated members):
    • Date.Quarter(Column["Some Date"]) (for quarter)
    • Date.DayOfWeek(Column["Some Date"]) (for day-of-week)
    • Date.Week(Column["Some Date"]) (for week number)

Column is a special variable that provides access to the context CSV row values; you can use column name directly if it doesn't contain spaces or special symbols - for example, SomeDate. More details about expression syntax you can found here.

Measures setup

CSV cube measure setup
Type
Count: the number of aggregated rows.
Sum: the total sum of a numeric column.
Average: the average value of a numeric column.
Min: the minimal value of a column.
Max: the maximum value of a column.
Count Unique: the number of unique or distinct values of a column.
Quantile/Median: 2-quantile value (median) for the a numeric column.
Mode: the value that appears most often.
Variance: the variance Var(X) of a numeric column. It is possible to calculate sample variance / standard deviartion / sample standard deviation by specifying 2-nd parameter for this measure type.
Expression: measure defined as formula calculated by SeekTable.
Parameters
For Type=Count: no parameters needed.
For Type=Sum/Average/Min/Max/Count Unique/Mode: name of CSV column to aggregate.
For Type=Quantile/Median: first parameter is name of CSV column; second parameter is optional and represents percentile value (default value is 0.5 which gives median).
For Type=Variance: first parameter is name of CSV column; second parameter is optional and can be: Variance, SampleVariance, StandardDeviation, SampleStandardDeviation (if not specified "Variance" is assumed).
For Type=Expression: first parameter is an expression, and next parameters are names of measures used as arguments in the expression.
Name
Explicit unique measure identifier. You can leave it blank (for any measure types except "Expression") to generate the name automatically.
Label
User-friendly measure caption (optional).
Format
Custom format template (for .NET String.Format, value placeholder is {0}). Examples:
  • {0:$#.##} → format number as $10.25 (or empty if no value)
  • {0:0.#|k} → if number>1000 shorten it with "k" suffix
  • {0:0.#|M} → if number>1000000 shorten it with "M" suffix
  • {0:0.#|kMB} → shorten large number with appropriate "k"/"M"/"B" suffix

Report parameters setup

You can define report parameters to specify report-specific filtering condition by CSV column(s) in Filter Expression:

Name
Unique (for this cube) parameter identifier.
Label
User-friendly parameter caption for UI (optional).
Data Type
String: text-based value.
Int32: 32-bit integer (max value is 2,147,483,647).
Int64: 64-bit integer (max value is 9,223,372,036,854,775,807).
Decimal: Fixed-point number with max 28 significant digits. Decimal point is '.' character.
DateTime: date or datetime value (in case of date this will be datetime value with 0:00:00 time). Date value should be specified as string in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Boolean: accepts only 'True' or 'False' value.
Multivalue
If checked parameter can accept several values (as array, in UI user can enter them as comma-separated string). Multivalue parameter can be used only with IN condition.
Default Value
Defines default value of this parameter. Empty means 'not defined'.
Expression
Custom expression to evaluate final parameter value. Expression syntax is the same as in calculated cube members; you can access user-entered values with Parameter["param_name"].
For example: "%"+Parameter["param_name"]+"%" (wrap with '%' for 'like' condition).

When parameter is defined it can be used in Filter Expression as following:

"1"="1" @paramName[ and "csv_column_name":field="{0}":var ]

In this sample parameter name is paramName and CSV column to filter is csv_column_name.

Filtering expression syntax:

Parameter placeholder syntax:

@
identifies that this is a placeholder for the parameter
paramName
parameter's Name
[ ]
expression between square brackets is added to Filter Expression when parameter is defined.
"{0}":var
placeholder for the parameter value.

Analyze very large CSV file

In case if you want to create a pivot table by CSV file that exceeds upload limit (even zipped) you still can do that in one of the following ways: