# IBM Visualization Data Explorer QuickStart Guide

[ Bottom of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents | Partial Table of Contents | Index ]

## 3.4 A thumbnail Sketch of the Data Prompter Choices

Data Explorer File | This choice is for when you already have data stored in Data Explorer format, for example if you are using a filter which converts from another format to Data Explorer format.
CDF Format | This is a standard data format which Data Explorer imports directly. An application programming interface can be obtained from the National Space Science Data Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
netCDF Format | This is a standard data format which Data Explorer imports directly. An application programming interface for netCDF can be obtained from the Unidata Program Center in Boulder, Colorado.
HDF Format | This is a standard data format which Data Explorer imports directly. HDF was created at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Image File | Data Explorer directly imports TIFF, MIFF, GIF, and RGB format images.
Grid or Scattered File | This option allows you to specify a general array header which can describe a wide variety of formats of data. Data can be on a regular grid, a warped grid with positions explicitly specified, or scattered. The general array format can skip header lines and embedded descriptive text. Data can be multidimensional, multivariable, and series (see 5.1 , "General Array Importer").
Spreadsheet Format file | This option is typically used for non-spatial data, for example the output of a spreadsheet program which might look like:
          Customer       Sales        Profit
          company_a       1.2           938
          company_b       8.9          1037
              .            .             .
              .            .             .
              .            .             .
See ImportSpreadsheet in IBM Visualization Data Explorer User's Reference.

[ Top of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents | Partial Table of Contents | Index ]
[Data Explorer Documentation | QuickStart Guide | User's Guide | User's Reference | Programmer's Reference | Installation and Configuration Guide ]

[Data Explorer Home Page | Contact Data Explorer | Same document on Data Explorer Home Page ]

[IBM Home Page | Order | Search | Contact IBM | Legal ]