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
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At least 1 segment column (formatted as string/text).
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Segment values (string data) can contain any characters supported by Unicode/UTF-8 encoding.
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Remove free text or unstructured data columns (data longer than 256 characters will be truncated)
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Column names must...
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Have no duplicates.
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Be included as the first row of data.
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Not contain the "|" pipe character.
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Have no more than 128 characters.
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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 reformat 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: