[R] need advice on using excel to check data for import into R

[Michael Bibo]

Markus Weisner <r <at> themarkus.com> writes:


> My question is whether anybody can think of clever alternatives for clients
> to validate their data 
 for example, is their a R excel plugin (that would
> be easily installed by a client) where I might be able write some lines of
> R to check the data and output messages 
 or maybe some sort of server
> where they could upload their data and I could have some lines of R code
> that would check the code and send back potential error messages?
> 
> I realize this is a fairly open ended question 
 just looking for some
> general ideas and directions to go. Getting a little frustrated with
> spending most of my work time dealing with data cleaning issues 
 guessing
> this is a problem shared by many of us that use R!
> 


For what it's worth, Excel does have some data validation tools built in.  I
refer people to "Disciplined Use of Spreadsheet Packages for Data Entry"
available as a pdf from from the Statistical Services Centre at the University
of Reading (http://www.reading.ac.uk/ssc/n/resources/DataEntryAndOrganisation.htm).

Note that there is also a follow-up document "Role of a Database Package for
Research Projects" for when "you are reaching the limits of Excel".


Hope this helps,

Michael Bibo
Queensland Health