Import Data from a Text File

How To... > Work with Collections > Get Data into Fathom > Import Data from a Text File

Fathom imports tab-delimited text files. If the first row of the file has alphanumeric characters, Fathom will treat it as the attribute names. Otherwise, Fathom will name attributes attr1, attr2, and so on and make the first row the first case.

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1.	Export the data from the program as a tab-delimited text file, including the attribute names (if possible). (see the program’s documentation if you need help with this; most programs that work with data have a tab-delimited text file export option.)

2.	Switch to Fathom.

3.	Choose File \| Import \| Import From File.

4.	Select the file you want to import and click Open.

5.	Check that the import worked as expected by making a case table (with the collection selected, drag a case table from the shelf).

If your data imports but the first case is used as the attribute names, you can fix it in Fathom. (Double-click an attribute name to edit it. After fixing the attribute names, delete the first case.) To fix the data before importing, open the text file in a word processing or spreadsheet program and add a line at the top with the attribute names. Then import this edited file.

If the import didn’t work well enough (that is, if it would be too much work to make it right), consider working with the data in a spreadsheet or text-editing program to get it into “Fathomable” shape. Spreadsheets, for example, often have a command that turns “Cases as Columns” into “Cases as Rows.”