The Column Info Window

Use the Column Info window to specify all of the attributes and properties of a column. You can access the Column Info window in any one of the following ways:

•	Select Cols > New Column

•	Click an existing column heading and select Cols > Column Info

•	Right-click an existing column heading and select Column Info

•	Double-click directly above a column name

•	In the Columns panel, right-click a column and select Column Info

The Column Info Window

The Column Info window contains the following information:

Column Name

Type or edit the name of the column.

Lock

Lock the column so that none of its values can be edited. After you lock a column, the lock icon (

) appears next to the column name in the data table’s Columns panel. If you add a formula to a column, the column automatically locks.

Data Type

Select or change the data type of a column, which determines the following:

‒	How the column’s values are formatted in the data grid

‒	How the column’s values are saved internally

‒	Whether the column’s values can be used in calculations

See About Data Types and Modeling Types.

Choose from the following data types:

‒	Numeric columns contain only numbers (with or without a decimal point).

‒	Character columns contain any characters, including numbers. In character columns, numbers are seen as characters and are treated as discrete values instead of continuous values. The maximum field width for character values is 32,766 bytes.

‒	Row State columns contain row state information, which indicates whether the rows are excluded, hidden, labeled, colored, or marked. See Row State Columns.

‒

Expression columns contain JSL expressions that can range from simple entries to complicated statement sequences. In particular, an expression can correspond to a picture, a matrix, or an expression. You can drag-and-drop expressions, such as an image, from your desktop to cells in an expression column. See Expression Role.

Notes:

‒	If you change a column’s Data Type from Character to Numeric, any character values become missing data values and are not recoverable.

‒

If you enter non-numeric data in a column with a Numeric data type, a warning window is displayed, prompting you to change the data type to Character. Click Try Again to return to the data table to re-enter the value. Click Change to change the data type. Click Revert to cancel your edit and return the cell’s value.

‒	Short-integer formats might also be available. See The Short-Integer Format.

Modeling Type

(Numeric or Character data types only) Select or change the modeling type of a column, which tells JMP how to treat the column’s values during analyses. You can change the modeling type to look at a variable in different ways. See About Data Types and Modeling Types.

Choose from the following modeling types:

‒	Continuous columns contain only numeric data types. Continuous values are treated as continuous measurement values. JMP uses the numeric values directly in computations.

‒	Ordinal columns contain either numeric or character data types. JMP analyses treat ordinal values as discrete categorical values that have an order. If the values are numbers, the order is the numeric magnitude. If the values are character, the order is the sorting sequence.

‒	Nominal columns contain either numeric or character data types. All values are treated in JMP analyses as if they are discrete values with no implicit order.

Format

(Numeric data types only) Select or change the display format of a numeric column. See Numeric Formats.

Initialize Data

(Appears only during new column creation) Specify the type of initial data values that you want to appear in the column. See Fill in Initial Data Values.

Column Properties

(Contains a list of different properties) Assign properties to columns. See Column Properties.

Tip: Use the Next button to continue adding columns.

About Data Types and Modeling Types

A column in a JMP data table can contain different types of information. However, all information in a single column must have the same data and modeling types.

•	When you import data, JMP guesses which data and modeling types to use. Therefore, you should verify that JMP has guessed correctly.

•	When you manually insert data into JMP, you should assign a data type and a modeling type at that time.

Modeling Type Icons in the Columns Panel illustrates the icons that identify the different modeling types.

Modeling Type Icons in the Columns Panel

Click on an icon to change the modeling type.

Tip: You can select Continuous only if your data type is numeric. If the Continuous option is dimmed on the menu and you want to make the column continuous, you must first change the column’s data type in the Column Info window.

The Short-Integer Format

When you use the correct short-integer format for your data, you do not see any difference in how the numbers appear. However, the numbers occupy less disk space and use less memory. Short-integer formats must be activated in preferences to appear in the Column Info window.

To make short-integer formats available in the Column Info window

1.	Select File > Preferences and click Tables.

2.	Select the Allow short numeric data format option.

3.	Click OK to return to the data table.

To store numeric data in short-integer format:

1.	Double-click above the column name whose values you want to be short-integer.

The Column Info window appears.

2.	From the Data Type menu, select 1-byte integer, 2-byte integer, or 4-byte integer.

JMP stores values as integers in the range that you selected. The following numbers are examples:

•	For 1-byte integer, the range of numbers that you can enter is from -126 to 127.

•	For 2-byte integer, the range of numbers that you can enter is from -32,766 to 32,767.

•	For 4-byte integer, the range of numbers that you can enter is from -2,147,483,646 to 2,147,483,647.

Numeric Formats

For numeric columns, the Format menu appears in the Column Info window. Specify the format to tell JMP how to display numbers in the column.

Note the following information:

•	For all format options, you can specify the number of total characters that you want the cells in the column to accommodate. See Specify Width.

•	For descriptions of the format options, see Numeric Format Options.

•	To add commas to values that equal a thousand or more, select the Use thousands separator option. You must account a space for each comma in the Width box, or else they might not appear. This option is available for the Best, Fixed Dec, Percent, and Currency formats.

Specify Width

When you specify a number in the Width field, be sure to include the total number of possible characters. Characters include: numbers, decimal points, commas, and currency symbols.

Numeric Format Options

Choose from the following numeric format options:

Best

Allows JMP to consider the precision of each cell value and select the best way to show it. By default, the physical width of the column is 12 characters.

Fixed Dec

Shows all values in the column rounded to the number of decimal places that you specify.

Note the following:

‒	To see only whole numbers, set the number of decimal places to zero.

‒	If the number of integers following the decimal point is smaller than the number of decimal places that you specify, zeros are added to reach the number of decimal places. For example, if the value is 1.23 and you type 5 in the Dec box, JMP shows the number with five decimal places: 1.23000.

Percent

Multiplies numeric values by 100 and shows the number followed by a percent sign.

PValue

Shows probability values. The default value of the width is 12. If a number is less than 0.0001, the number is displayed as <.0001. The format is mostly used in JSL scripts and rarely needed for a data table column.

Scientific

Shows a number in standard scientific notation. If you enter the number 123456, it appears as 1.23456e+5. Select Dec to show the decimal points and enter the number of points.

Engineering

Engineering SI

Same as Engineering, but the exponent is replaced with an SI symbol.

Precision

Rounds the number to a given number of significant digits.

Currency

Formats values with two decimal positions, thousands separators, and the currency sign that is specified in your computer’s locale settings. The default width of the Currency format is 15. If you have a number that requires a wider field width, the format defaults to the Best format. Once assigned, the currency symbol appears in the column and in graphs that contain the column.

Date

Shows all values in the column as a date. See Date Formats.

Time

Shows all values in the column as a specific instance in time, such as 12/2/03 at 2:23 PM. See Time Formats.

Duration

Shows all values in the column as a duration of time, such as hours, minutes, and seconds.

‒	:day:hr:m, :day:hr:m:s show a duration of time, such as 52:03:01:30, or fifty-two days, three hours, one minute, and thirty seconds.

‒	hr:m, hr:m:s, min:s shows a duration of time, such as 17:37, or seventeen hours and thirty-seven minutes.

Geographic

Shows latitude and longitude number formatting for geographic maps. Latitude and longitude options include the following:

‒	DDD (degrees)

‒	DMM (degrees and minutes)

‒	DMS (degrees, minutes, and seconds)

In each format, the last field can have a fraction part. You can specify the direction with either a signed degree field or a direction suffix. To show a signed degree field, such as -59°00'00", deselect Direction Indicator. To show the direction suffix, such as 59°00'00" S, select Direction Indicator.

To use spaces as field separators, deselect Field Punctuation. To use degrees, minutes, and seconds symbols, select Field Punctuation.

Date Formats

When you choose a Date format, you can also specify an Input Format. The Date format indicates how the date appears in the data table cells, and the Input Format indicates how you enter the date.

If you assign a date format to a numeric column that already contains data, then the numeric values are treated as the number of seconds since January 1, 1904. For example, if you have a numeric column with a cell value of 1,234,567,890 and you change the format to Date > m/d/y, the cell value appears as 02/13/1943.

The examples in Date Formats use the date of December 31, 2004.

Date Formats
Format	Appears As
m/d/y	12/31/2004
mmddyyyy	12312004
m/y	12/2004
yyyyQq	2004Q4
d/m/y	31/12/2004
ddmmyyyy	31122004
ddMonyyyy	31Dec2004
Monddyyyy	Dec312004
y/m/d	2004/12/31
yyyymmdd	20041231
yyyy-mm-dd	2004-12-31
Date Long	Friday, December 31, 2004
Date Abbrev	Dec 31, 2004
Locale Date	Varies based on local OS setting. Here is an example: in the United States, the local OS setting is mm/dd/yyyy (12/31/2004).

Note: To change how a date appears in a graph without changing how it appears in a data table, see Change the Numeric Format of an Axis in JMP Platforms.

Time Formats

When you choose a Time format, you can also specify an Input Format. The Time format indicates how the time appears in the data table cells, and the Input Format indicates how you enter the time.

•	You can add the number of hours, minutes, and seconds after midnight of the prepended date for the following date formats:

‒

‒

‒

‒

‒

‒	Locale Date

For example, December 31, 2004 has a numeric value of 3,187,296,600, which represents 12/31/2004 12:10 AM.

•	:day:hr:m and :day:hr:m:s show the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds since January 1, 1904. For example, the results for December 31, 2004 are :36890:00:10: and :36890:00:10:00.

•	h:m:s and h:m show the hours, minutes, and seconds portion of the date in the date field. For example, the results for December 31, 2004 at 12:10 AM are 12:10:00 AM and 12:10 AM.

•	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm and yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss show the year, month, day, and time. For example, 2004-12-31T12:10:00. T is a literal value, representing itself.

Note: To change how a time appears in a graph without changing how it appears in a data table, see Change the Numeric Format of an Axis in JMP Platforms.

International Formats

If you are importing or entering data that contains formatting specific to country standards, you might need to make sure that your number formats are interpreted correctly. On Windows, access the Control Panel’s region and language option, and select the country for which the number should be formatted. On the Macintosh, from the Apple menu, select System Preferences > Language & Text> Formats, and select the correct country. On later versions of Macintosh, this option may appear under System Preferences > Language and Region.

Row State Columns

Row States in Rows and a Row State Column

Since row state columns store the row states, you can apply them again later. Populate row state columns by copying them from the current row states or with column formulas.

To create a row state column

1.	Select Cols > New Column.

2.	Next to Data Type, select Row State.

Click OK.

Populate the cells with new row state information or copy existing row state information from rows.

To populate cells with new row state information

1.	To populate only certain rows in the row state column, highlight those rows. Or, to populate all rows in the column, highlight the row state column.

2.	Right-click and select Row States Cells.

3.	Select the row state that you want to apply.

To copy existing row state information

1.	To populate only certain rows in the row state column, highlight those rows. Or, to populate all rows in the column, highlight the row state column.

2.	Click the star icon () beside the column name in the Columns panel.

3.	Select one of the following:

‒	Copy from Row States Replaces the row states in the column with the row states from the rows.

‒	Add from Row States Adds the row states from the rows to the row state column.

‒	Copy to Row States Replaces the row states in the rows with the row states from the column.

‒	Add to Row States Adds the row states from the row state column to the row states in the rows.

Permanently Select Cells

You can save a selection in a row state column just like you save other row state characteristics (hide, exclude, color, and so on). This places a “permanent” highlight on a cell.

To permanently select cells

1.	Right-click a cell and select Row States Cells > Select/Deselect.

2.	Repeat this for as many cells as you would like to select.

3.	To remove the highlight, right-click on the cell and select Row States Cells > Select/Deselect.

Fill in Initial Data Values

When you add a new column to a data table, the Initialize Data menu appears in the Column Info window. Specify the type of initial data values that you want to appear in the new column. Select one of the following options:

Missing/Empty

Places missing values in the column, represented by a black dot (•) for numeric data and a blank space for character data.

Constant

Places one number or character in all of the column’s rows. Enter the number or character into the box that appears. Enter any number of characters.

Today

Places today’s timestamp in the column for each row. This option is relevant only for the Date or Time formats.

Sequence Data

Inserts sequential data based on the parameters that you specify. See Numeric or Character Sequence Data.

Random

Inserts random data into the column. Select the type of random number that you want to use, and then enter one of the following:

‒	A range for random integers or random uniform numbers.

‒	The mean and standard deviation for random normal numbers.

‒	Values and proportions for random indicators.

Numeric or Character Sequence Data

To insert sequential data for numeric data

1.	Next to Data Type, make sure Numeric is selected.

2.	Next to Initialize Data, select Sequence Data.

3.	In the From and To boxes, assign a starting and ending point.

4.	In the Step box, assign the sequence.

5.	(Optional) In the Repeat each value N times box, enter the number of times that you want each numeric value repeated.

Click OK.

For example, if you want the column to contain even numbers from 2 to 60, type 2 in the From box, 60 in the To box, and 2 in the Step box.

To insert sequential data for character data

1.	Next to Data Type, make sure Character is selected.

2.	Next to Initialize Data, select Sequence Data.

3.	In the box next to Add, enter the character data and click Add.

4.	(Optional) In the Repeat each value N times box, enter the number of times that you want each character value repeated.

Click OK.