Dataset Requirements
Auto Insights connects to databases, and you can also upload flat files. The requirements and recommendations in the list below apply to both data upload methods.
Requirements
- Time Series Data
- At least 1 date column (formatted yyyy-mm-dd).
- At least 1 segment column (formatted as string/text).
- Remove free text or unstructured data columns.
- Column names must...
- Have no duplicates.
- Be included as the first row of data.
- Have no more than 5 words.
- Have no numbers or special characters.
Recommendations
In addition to the requirements, we recommend you use a dataset with:
- At least 1 number column.
- Data spanning at least 24 months.
- At least 5 segment columns (formatted as string/text).
The recommendations are just suggestions. You can still use Auto Insights successfully if your data doesn't have these attributes.
Tips and Tricks
We've outlined a few tips and tricks that you can use to take your data from good to great. While the examples shown are in a CSV file, these tricks also apply if you connect Auto Insights to your database.
1. How to quickly re-format a date:
2. Sometimes data looks Auto Insights ready but isn't. This dataset has a few problems that you can quickly fix:
3. With these few quick changes, you can get insights from this data in Auto Insights in minutes: