Chapter 4
Accessing Data in Files
IN THIS CHAPTER
Working with simple and formatted text data
Using alternative flat-file sources
Considering nontext sources
Interacting with online data
Unless the data you use is a live feed or is generated in some manner, it likely comes from a file. In fact, files provide the means to preserve the majority of data used for analysis purposes. So the use of files for storage isn’t the issue; instead, the question is what sort of file you might expect to see. The format of the data in the file says a lot about the kind of information you can expect from it. Chapter 1 of this minibook describes the format of files from an overview perspective. This chapter demonstrates how to access data found in files of various formats.
Major divisions appear in the complexity of file storage as well. The files described in this chapter are flat file in nature, which means that they contain just one table. However, the chapter also discusses both textual and binary storage in both local and online sources. Chapter 5 of this minibook looks at relational databases, ...
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