Selecting and viewing data as a spreadsheet

When you have loaded the data into the CICS® PA plug-in, you can select and view all, or a subset of, the data, as a spreadsheet in the CICS PA Sheet view.

If the data is not yet loaded into the CICS PA plug-in, follow the steps in the task Loading csv data in the CICS PA plug-in to load csv data, or Connecting to a database to connect to a database, before continuing.

The first time you click a file in the Project Explorer view, the CICS PA plug-in performs an analysis of the data. The analysis might take a few seconds to complete. When the analysis is complete, a plus icon (an arrow on Linux®) displays next to the file. Clicking the icon, and subsequent icons, expands the file and displays the file contents in the following cascading order:

In the following screen capture, the file sample.csv in the folder TESTF contains data summarized by start date and time, and using various time intervals. The start time 03:55:00.000 contains an APPLID, APOC3C1, containing two transaction IDs.

A picture of the Project Explorer view showing a folder expanded to show a csv file and all expanded branches.

In the Project Explorer view you can select a single transaction ID, multiple transaction IDs, a single time period, multiple time periods, a single date period, multiple date periods, or any combination. When you have made a selection you can display the data as a spreadsheet in the Sheet view before analyzing it further. The Sheet view is described later in this topic.

Selecting and viewing a single data element

To select a single element of data, perform the following steps:
  1. Expand the file in the Project Explorer view by clicking the plus icon (an arrow on Linux) alongside the file. Repeat the action until the data element you want to view is displayed.
  2. Click the data element. Right-click the selection and click The icon for a pie chart Sheet view . The selected data is displayed as a spreadsheet in the Sheet view.
  3. Optionally, right-click the selection and click The icon for performance history Performance history and select one of the analysis types in the pop-up menu. For more information see the Analyzing data topic.

Selecting and viewing multiple data elements

You can select and view data in any combination of start dates, start times, APPLIDs, or Transaction IDs. To select multiple elements of data, perform the following steps:
  1. Expand the file in the Project Explorer view by clicking the plus icon (an arrow on Linux) alongside the file. Repeat the action until the data you want to view is displayed.
  2. Highlight the first item of data you want to view by left-clicking. This can be a transaction ID, application ID or a time period.
  3. Select subsequent items of data using the Shift or Ctrl keys.
  4. Right-click the selection and click The icon for a pie chart Sheet view . The selected data is displayed as a spreadsheet in the Sheet view.
  5. Optionally, right-click the selection and click The icon for a performance history Performance history and select one of the analysis types in the pop-up menu. For more information see the Analyzing data topic.

The Sheet view

You can display some, or all of the data as a spreadsheet in the Sheet view. The data in each column can be sorted by clicking the column name, and the columns can be repositioned in the spreadsheet as required. From the Sheet view you can select one or more transactions for more detailed analysis, and view the new selection in a new Sheet view or in one or more of the graphical views.

The Sheet view is shown In the following screen capture. The view tab shows that the source for the data is the sample.csv file and that it has 44 records. The information line below that tab shows the path to the data, and the tree node selected to display the data.

A screen capture showing the Sheet view containing data from the sample spreadsheet

The Sheet view shows all the data fields in the selected data source, however because of the amount of data, it is not always easy to identify out-of-line situations. By making use of the sort facility you can select a subset of the data for further analysis.

When you have selected a subset, right click the selection, click The icon for a performance history Performance history, and select one of the report options to analyze the data further.

For more information on analyzing data, see the related link.

Related reference
Analyzing data