How to prepare csv-formatted databases/tables for uploading to NOW

There is no common format for storing time series. Accordingly it is impossible for a program like NOW to read and interpret all possible formats correctly. Therefor it may be necessary to convert the "raw data" into the format as required by NOW, first. Note: in all cases feel free to contact DSI’s support team for assistance.

The NOW-format

Deutsche Version

Example:

date, “Commodity Prices Gold”, “Commodity Prices Platinum”, “Commodity Prices Silver”
2016,1249,987,17
2017,1258,948,17
2018,1269,880,16

The first row is reserved for the header information – “date” followed by the time series codes/descriptions, each separated from the previous by “,”, “;” or tab. NOW imports time series for monthly, quarterly and annual data. So it is necessary to serve NOW with the correct “date” format:

monthly data: yyyy-mm (mm: 01, 02, 03, …, 12)

quarterly data: yyyy-01 (1st quarter)
yyyy-04 (2nd quarter)
yyyy-07 (3rd quarter)
yyyy-10 (4th quarter)

annual data: yyyy

The time series formats, e.g. decimal characters “,” or “.”, are interpreted automatically.

Known problems and how to solve

The source comes with more than one header line: delete the redundant title rows and keep the row that defines the time series in the corresponding columns..

The source shows another “data” format than indicated above: replace it by the valid format.

The source provides the time series in rows: transpose the source into columns first, and sort them e.g. with Excel by using transpose- or pivot-functionalities.