Aside from typing information into Excel, there are a number of other ways to get new data into spreadsheets. These methods include opening structured, plain-text files in ways that are meaningful to Excel (for example, rawdata.txt); using other desktop applications as data sources (such as tables in MS Word and tabular results from SPSS); drawing information from structured or nonstructured online sources (such as content from COMPUSTAT or even the whitepages.com); and developing systems that create/simulate large volumes of data with desired characteristics (mainly for use in illustrating or testing the robustness of proposed management policies). In this chapter we'll touch on each of these at some level.

Text file imports and basic table transfers

If you have a text file that contains information, such as a survey or database data in text-file format, it can be opened into Excel as a new file. You simply need to specify how data in that file are organized, such as separated by spaces, tabs, commas, and so on.

As an example, imagine a text file titled Chp3_MultRespsFinal.txt. Each record in this file occupies a new row, and the information relating to each record is organized sequentially with each field separated by a comma. This kind of data organization is referred to as comma delimited. Select Home>Open in Excel and then find and select this text document. The Step 1 of the Text Import Wizard opens, as shown in Figure 3.1.