Importing Data from the Clipboard

Origin's Import Wizard includes support for importing data from the clipboard. This handy feature is especially useful when copying data from a website, since you can interactively control how the data is brought into Origin.

A visual preview of your data allows you to define the format of your data as you step through the wizard. Specify lines of header information, the line containing your column titles, the lines of column label information, as well as the delimiter for your copied data.

The first page of Origin's Import Wizard allows you to specify whether your ASCII data will be imported from a file or from the Clipboard.

Try an example.

Try It

Importing data from the Clipboard can be a difficult task in any software. For instance, if you try to copy the categorical data seen here into a Microsoft® Excel workbook, all four columns of data will paste as one blob of text into the first column.

Age	Recovery	Gender	Drug
20	11	Male	Drug A
23	12	Female	Drug A
22	13	Female	Drug B
23	11	Male	Drug B
21	12	Male	Placebo
23	14	Female	Placebo
36	20	Male	Drug A
32	19	Female	Drug A
34	18	Female	Drug B
34	21	Male	Drug B
36	22	Male	Placebo
35	23	Female	Placebo
45	29	Male	Drug A
44	30	Female	Drug A
44	32	Female	Drug B
43	31	Male	Drug B
44	35	Male	Placebo
45	36	Female	Placebo
57	38	Male	Drug A
60	39	Female	Drug A
60	42	Female	Drug B
59	41	Male	Drug B
60	46	Male	Placebo
58	45	Female	Placebo

However, if you try to bring the same data into Origin using the Import Wizard, you can control how it imports, thereby ensuring it comes in the way you want.

Example 1

To try this out for yourself, download and install the Origin demo/evaluation copy. Launch Origin and follow these simple steps:

1. Return to this web page and highlight the data.
   
2. Right-click on the highlighted selection and choose Copy.
   
3. Select File: Import Wizard in Origin.
   
4. Select the Clipboard radio button.
   
5. Click the Next button.
   
6. Set Column label lines to <None>.
7. Note that the first row (denoted in red) will be used as your column names.
   
8. Click the Next button twice, bypassing the Header Variables page.
   
9. On the Data Columns page, make sure Tab is your Delimiter.
   
10. Click the Finish button.
    

The result will look something like this:

Note: Since the data was imported via the Clipboard, a temporary file name is shown.

Example 2

For a more detailed example, try this Daily Solar Flare data file:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ftpdir/latest/DSD.txt

Use these instructions:

1. Follow steps 1-5 in the first example.
   
2. Set Column names from line and Column label lines: from to <None>.
   
3. Click the Next button twice, bypassing the Header Variables page.
   
4. On the Data Columns page, make sure the following actions are performed:
   1. Set the first 3 columns - A(X), B(Y), and C(Y) - as Text (right-click on the column heading and choose Set Format=>Text)
   2. Enable the Fixed radio button and enter the following string: 10,5,7,9,7,8,7,4,3,3,3,3,3,3 to define the number of characters per column
   3. Note the Number of columns text box is automatically set to 14
5. Click the Finish button.

You might notice that the first three columns get combined into one column (A(X) that looks like a date. To change the column format from "Text" to "Date", first define a Custom Date Format. Select Tools: Options => Miscellaneous tab and enter: yyyy' 'MM' 'dd in either Custom Date Format text box. Click OK and select 'Yes'. Finally, double-click on the column title for the column containing the date values to bring up Worksheet Column Format, set the Format drop-down list to Date, and select the custom date format you entered previously.