Worksheet Remodeling, Part I
Losing the Clutter
As with any workspace, a Minitab Data window in disarray can make even simple tasks cumbersome. An unorganized worksheet can be difficult to assess visually, and in some cases, Minitab may not even be able to analyze it.
Because data isn't always collected in a way that's conducive to analyzing it, Minitab offers a wide selection of data manipulation tools (largely contained in the Data menu) that allow you to clean up and organize your data, making all the things you need to do with it easier.
In this installment of our three part series on data manipulation, we'll focus on a common solution to messy worksheets: losing the clutter.
Know your options
Why struggle to work with a sprawling data set when you're only interested in a fraction of the data? Here are data manipulation tools aimed at helping you trim and splice an unruly worksheet into more manageable pieces.
Splitting a crowded worksheet
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Data for three separate processes are crowded onto this single worksheet, making it awkward to work with any one portion. | With the Data > Split Worksheet tool, you can easily split the data into separate, easy-to-manage worksheets. |
Deleting excess rows and columns
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These repeated labels and redundant column don't add anything and may actually complicate your analysis. | Tools like Data > Erase Variables and simple manual deletions eliminate the excess labels, leaving your worksheet cleaner and more compact. |
Hiding unused columns
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These columns aren't being analyzed with the rest of the data, but they may be used later, so deleting them permanently doesn't make sense. | With Column > Hide Selected Columns, the variables are put temporarily out of sight. Note how the column IDs jump from C1 to C4, indicating hidden columns. |
Try it yourself
Now that you've seen some of the ways you can manipulate data, let's see how easy these tools can be to use.
Each week, quality engineers at a casting and machining company collected information, unsure of how the data would ultimately be used. For each of four plants, they recorded the number of reworked and scrapped parts, jobsite injuries, and warranty claims stemming from parts made in the facility. Now the data has come to you for some initial analysis. |  |
The engineers placed extra rows in the worksheet to separate the data from different weeks. You decide to remove these rows. - Select the entire row you want to delete by clicking the row number.
- Right click and choose Delete cells.
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Because the different plants perform such distinct tasks and have different numbers of people, you won't be making comparisons between them. You decide to split the data to put observations from each plant on a separate worksheet. |  |
- Choose Data > Split Worksheet.
- In By variables, enter 'Plant,' and click OK.
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Because your initial inquiries will focus only on the flawed parts produced at each plant, you decide to hide the column of worker injury data. Because each worksheet contains only observations from a single plant, you can remove the 'Plant' column, too. |  |
- Select the columns you want to hide.
- Right-click and choose Columns > Hide Columns. Now your Data window has been pared down to just those elements you intend to analyze.
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Putting It to Use
Data can reach you in a disorganized state for many reasons, but that doesn't mean you have to work with it that way. Simple tools like these can help to clear up your workspace and remove the extraneous rows and columns that can complicate your work. Best of all, they're nearly effortless to use. In the coming installments, we'll cover even more of Minitab's data manipulation tools so you'll never have to muddle through with awkwardly assembled data again.