Adding Time-stamped data - how to? 3

[MattGreer]

I'm working with a data dump from a chemical facility control system. We're not able to look at the data except in tabular format, so I'd like to use Excel to plot trends and analyze the information. I can't use Access at work because my company doesn't have it, but I do have Access 2013 at home.

The data comes in from the control system with a time stamp. So it might look like this:

[tt]Time and Date, Instrument, Value
2013-04-05 13:12:29.683, FE-1000, 2500.1
2013-04-05 13:16:29.677, FE-1000, 2819.7
2013-04-05 13:16:41.677, FE-1000, 2453.3[/tt]

The time intervals are not consistent, and there are many different instruments, probably close to 100 different instruments. So when I import into Access the order will be somewhat random when it comes to looking at the data row by row.

I would like to be able analyze the data by Excel. It seems to me that because the number of rows exceeds the capability of Excel, Access would be the platform to use. I'm assuming that Excel can connect to Access and query the data for trends and so forth.

Questions:
1. Will Access be able to understand that date/time format, or should I split the date and time into two different fields? Is that time format able to be "understood" and sorted by Access?
2. If I make each row have it's on ID number as the primary key, will it matter when I run a query that the data in the table is not sorted by the Date and Time field? Would I simply just run the sort whenever I query the table?
3. If the data in Access is not sorted by date and time, I'd have to do that each time I run a query. Would that slow the query down? Should I re-order the data in Access each time I do an import?

It's been a loooong time since I've worked with a database. Please forgive my ignorance!

Thank you in advance for your help!

Thanks!!


Matt

 

[PHV]

Access will not understand the milliseconds part of your datestamp.
Unless you have to do calculations with the dates you may simply import it as text: it'll be sorted chron0logically due its format.

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[Andrzejek]

Data in a table is not sorted. It may look like it is sorted, but you have to sort it any time you request the data if the sort is important to you. Somebody compared it (the data in a table) to the marbles on the back of a pickup truck: it is all over unless you sort it when requested.

Have fun.

---- Andy

 

[MattGreer]

Would it make sense, at all, to create the table with a row for every second of every day, drop the milliseconds, and have empty rows with a time stamp but no data? The data is going to be displayed on charts with time on the x-axis. A scatter chart would not be used in this case.

Thanks!!


Matt

 

[SkipVought]

you don't need data for every time incriment, just the incriments that you have data for. Your chart will plot on a date/time axis proportional to the date/time.

Skip,
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