Excel has a data validation facility and also has data input forms to facilitate data entry.
On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Greg Snow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Stephen, > > One of the big problems with spreadsheets (other than the column limit in > some) is that the standard entry mode allows too much flexibility which does > nothing to help you avoid data entry errors. The Webpage: > http://www.burns-stat.com/pages/Tutor/spreadsheet_addiction.html has some > examples of this going wrong, including one that happened to my group where > the column for dates was not preformatted, the dates were entered using > European format, and Excel did 2 different wrong things with them making it > very difficult to do anything with the data without major extra work. If you > are going to stick with a spreadsheet, then at a minimum you should start by > naming all your columns, then formatting each column based on the type of > data you expect to be entered there. > > Going the database route is not that much to learn to get started. You can > use MSAccess, or the OpenOffice database, create a new table and enter the > names of each column along with the data type (this is a big advantage in > that it will not allow you to enter character data where numbers are > expected, forces dates to look like dates, etc.). It is not that much extra > work to enter valid levels for what will become factors (e.g. "Male" and > "Female" for sex, so that those are the only values allowed, my current > record for datasets entered by others using spreadsheets is 9 sexes). Then > you can pick up more as you go along, but setting up the first database to > enter data should only take you an hour or so to learn the basics. > > Another option is to just use R, the following code gives one approach that > could get you started entering data: > > tmp <- rep( list(character(0), numeric(0)), c(2,5) ) > names(tmp) <- c( 'ID','Sex', paste('Stream', 1:5, sep='') ) > tmp <- as.data.frame(tmp) > levels(tmp$Sex) <- c("Female","Male") > tmp$ID <- as.character(tmp$ID) > > mydata <- edit(tmp) > > Hope this helps, > > -- > Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D. > Statistical Data Center > Intermountain Healthcare > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 801.408.8111 > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> project.org] On Behalf Of stephen sefick >> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 7:02 PM >> To: R Help >> Subject: Re: [R] Staging area for data before read into R >> >> Well, I am going to type in ever value because the data sheets are of >> counts of insects that I identified, so I should be okay with >> accuracy... I really just need something that allows for more than >> 256 columns as I have encounter over 256 species of insects in even >> small streams. I think calc with it's 1000ish columns will do the >> trick... thanks everbody for your help. >> >> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 8:25 PM, Gabor Grothendieck >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > There is a list of free spreadsheets with their row and column limits >> > at this link: >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Calc >> > >> > On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 3:13 PM, stephen sefick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> wrote: >> >> sorry excel 2003 with no immediate update in the future. >> >> >> >> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 3:12 PM, Gabor Grothendieck >> >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> You didn't say which version of Excel you are using but Excel 2007 >> >>> allows 16,384 columns. >> >>> >> >>> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:27 PM, stephen sefick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> wrote: >> >>>> I am wondering if there is a better alternative than Excel for >> data >> >>>> storage that does not require database knowledge (I will >> eventually >> >>>> have to learn this, but it is not on my immediate todo list). I >> need >> >>>> something that is not limited to 256 columns... I don't need any >> of >> >>>> the built in functions in excel just a spreadsheet like program >> with >> >>>> cells that hold data in a data.frame format for a staging area >> before >> >>>> I get it into R. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is >> not >> >>>> a direct r question, but all of you folks have more experience >> than I >> >>>> do and I am having a time finding what I need with google. >> >>>> thanks in advance >> >>>> >> >>>> -- >> >>>> Stephen Sefick >> >>>> Research Scientist >> >>>> Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy >> >>>> >> >>>> Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that >> are >> >>>> so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up >> and >> >>>> make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted >> the >> >>>> annoying little problems of being mammals. >> >>>> >> >>>> -K. >> Mullis >> >>>> >> >>>> ______________________________________________ >> >>>> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> >>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- >> guide.html >> >>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >> >>>> >> >>> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Stephen Sefick >> >> Research Scientist >> >> Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy >> >> >> >> Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that >> are >> >> so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up >> and >> >> make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the >> >> annoying little problems of being mammals. >> >> >> >> -K. >> Mullis >> >> >> > >> >> >> >> -- >> Stephen Sefick >> Research Scientist >> Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy >> >> Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are >> so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and >> make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the >> annoying little problems of being mammals. >> >> -K. >> Mullis >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- >> guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
