Data Importing Archives - INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE Interactive Software's Achiever Laboratory Information Management and Biobanking software, LIMS and CRM systems transform your business processes, help you to comply and deliver data insights Thu, 18 Mar 2021 11:43:19 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 5 Tips on Cleansing External Data Before Importing into a LIMS https://www.interactivesoftware.co.uk/2021/03/18/cleansing-data-lims-import/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cleansing-data-lims-import Thu, 18 Mar 2021 11:43:19 +0000 https://www.interactivesoftware.co.uk/?p=19888 You have a data set and you know what your target LIMS system can import. So, how do you turn one into the other? It can be a real challenge to manipulate data files and half the problem is understanding the assumptions and implicit rules in the original. We briefly covered those in an earlier blog (Overcoming the Challenges of Cleansing Data to Import into a LIMS) so let’s think about the specifics. 1. Understand fully what is required Understand the required resulting format fully so that you have a clear target towards which you can work. And don’t try to use one tool for every task. Excel is great for many things but not all. It’s not good, for example, at differentiating and processing empty text values mixed with null values. A free utility such as Notepad++ is much better for that but can’t do pivot tables. Use the right tool for the job. 2. Data types Be clear about whether a particular field in your new system is expecting just a date or a date and time. SQL databases tend to use the same underlying data type and reformat the output. Input, however, is much fussier. Be consistent. […]

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