[ddj] Good resource for combining data in Excel or Spreadsheets?

Mon Oct 27 15:05:12 UTC 2014

If it is a simple matter of adding a table or list of data that is
identical in form and structure, I would simply copy the contents of one
csv file (or Excel worksheet) and tag it on to the end of the first file
(and then rename it something so I kept the first file). In other words,
cut and paste. Think of this as a "vertical join."

It is much more involved if you are trying to add new data in one file to
data in another (a "horizontal join.") For example, say you want to add the
spelled out name of states to a file that has state abbreviations. In that
case, I would use whatever database program you like (or know).

Wendell

On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 8:17 AM, Piyush Aggarwal <
me.piyushaggarwal at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Catherine,
>
> Last year, I came across a similar problem of merging two or more CSV
> files with common headers but couldn't find anything, so I wrote a simple
> Python Script: https://github.com/MePiyush/LivingData. It can help you in
> merging two CSV files into one.
>
> Piyush
>
> *about.me/mepiyush <http://about.me/mepiyush>*
>
> On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 4:27 PM, Catherine D'Ignazio <
> dignazio at media.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi all -
>>
>> I teach a data visualization course at Emerson College. We are just
>> starting to talk about cleaning and combining data from multiple sources
>> into a single file. We are using OpenRefine for cleaning.
>>
>> Does anyone have a good, simple tutorial link or resource for combining
>> data? Could be in Excel, Google Spreadsheets, or another program if it's
>> free and easily accessible.
>>
>> Catherine
>>
>>
>> /////////////////////////////
>> Catherine D'Ignazio
>> Research Affiliate, MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media
>> dignazio at mit.edu  ||   @kanarinka   ||   +1 617 501 2441   ||
>> www.kanarinka.com || http://civic.mit.edu/blog/kanarinka/
>>
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