Database

123 works best as an interactive workbook for entering, managing and querying moderate amounts of data.

However, 123 can be used as a simple interactive database for small datasets!

This page works through an example of the database features.

Importing Data

123 can import and parse plain text, such as logfiles, or comma separated values.

To import a CSV file, use /File Import Numbers.

All fields that are not numbers must be quoted, or 123 will discard them.

You can use the utility csvtool to reformat the CSV if necessary.

If you have a column of labels that you want converted into values, Format Lines tell 123 how to translate them.

Let's start with a simple example, a column that contains a label that should be a value.

In this sheet you can see the Market cap column contains labels, that should be values.

Move to the top of the column, and use /Data Parse Format Create, this will create a Format Line.
You can edit the format if you like, but in this case the default is correct.
Choose an Input-Column and Output-Range, and then choose Go
The column should be converted, you can now delete the Format Line.

dataparse

Format lines can be used to parse complex input lines, and are especially useful with /File Import Text, as arbitrary plain text can be parsed.

Symbol	Description
L	Represents the first character of a label block.
V	Represents the first character of a value block.
D	Represents the first character of a date block.
T	Represents the first character of a time block.
S	Skips the data block below the symbol when parsing data.
>	Represents any character in a data block.
*	Represents a blank space between data blocks.