Working with imported data - file size etc.

  • Thread starter Thread starter marsupilami
  • Start date Start date
M

marsupilami

Hi!

I'm working with different spectra from different chemical analysis.
The output from the instrument is a text file (.dx/.dat)typically
500-1000 lines long and in two columns (30-50 kb).

I want to import these into excel and manipulate them addition/
subtraction/ mulitiplication with different factors and also calculate
certain parameters based on these spectra (each in a separate column).

What is the best way to import/ work with such files? I usually do a
text import and paste all relevant spectra into a workbook, where I
also do all calculations and graphing. The problem is that the
file-size of the workbook often exceeds 500-1000 kb, giving me a memory
problem when working with several at the time!

Help on reducing file-size and easing the work will be greatly
appreciated!
 
It may be that adding some memory to your computer would help - it i
fairly cheap. The file size you state is relatively small. We routinel
handle files of 10-15 megabytes with 256k RAM (Windows NT4.0/Offic
97). Things get a bit slow at times, but the job gets done.

Having analysed such data as yours for many years (before Windows
(remember DBase IV?), I find the best general method is to keep the ra
data all in a single table as far as possible (in its own workbook)
Excel has some very powerful functions - especially pivot tables - tha
enable this to be analysed quickly easily. The only formatting tha
needs to be done is in the final report which uses references to th
pivot table. Usually VLOOKUP suffices.

If your data exceeds the 65,536 row limit of Excel, you can link to a
Access table just the same
 
Back
Top