Profiling data

Concept Information

PROFILE command

You can profile data to display the following summary statistics on one or more numeric fields in a table:

  • Total value – The sum of all field values.
  • Absolute value – The sum of all field values while disregarding the sign of the numbers. The absolute value is used as the default population parameter when sampling data using monetary unit sampling.
  • Minimum value – The smallest field value.
  • Maximum value – The largest field value.

Note

The minimum and maximum values are often used as default parameters when stratifying data and generating histograms.

Analytics includes an automatic profiling option which, if enabled, automatically produces a profile of all the numeric fields in a table each time a table is opened.

Steps

You can profile data to generate summary statistics on one or more numeric fields in a table.

  1. Select Analyze > Profile.
  2. On the Main tab, do one of the following:

    Select the field(s) to profile from the Profile Fields list.

    Click Profile Fields to select the field(s), or to create an expression.

    The order in which you select the fields is the order in which the columns appear in the results.

  3. If there are records in the current view that you want to exclude from processing, enter a condition in the If text box, or click If to create an IF statement using the Expression Builder.

    Note

    The If condition is evaluated against only the records remaining in a table after any scope options have been applied (First, Next, While).

    The IF statement considers all records in the view and filters out those that do not meet the specified condition.

  4. Click the More tab.

  5. Select the appropriate option in the Scope panel:

    • All
    • First
    • Next
    • While
    All This option is selected by default. Leave it selected to specify that all records in the view are processed.
    First Select this option and enter a number in the text box to start processing at the first record in the view and include only the specified number of records.
    Next Select this option and enter a number in the text box to start processing at the currently selected record in the view and include only the specified number of records. The actual record number in the leftmost column must be selected, not data in the row.
    While

    Select this option to use a WHILE statement to limit the processing of records in the view based on a particular criterion or set of criteria. You can enter a condition in the While text box, or click While to create a WHILE statement using the Expression Builder.

    A WHILE statement allows records in the view to be processed only while the specified condition evaluates to true. As soon as the condition evaluates to false, the processing terminates, and no further records are considered. You can use the While option in conjunction with the All, First, or Next options. Record processing stops as soon as one limit is reached.
     

    Note

    The number of records specified in the First or Next options references either the physical or the indexed order of records in a table, and disregards any filtering or quick sorting applied to the view. However, results of analytical operations respect any filtering.

    If a view is quick sorted, Next behaves like First.
  6. Click OK.

Enable automatic profiling

You can configure Analytics to automatically profile tables when they are opened. Profile results are opened in a separate tab in the display area. If this option is enabled, it applies to all Analytics tables.

  1. Select Tools > Options.
  2. Click the Table tab.
  3. Select Automatically Profile on Open.
  4. Click OK.