What is a Dataset?

In Vesta, a dataset is where data are organized in a way that describes what the data are and where they come from. A user can perform a number of actions with the information contained in a dataset, such as creating a scatter-plot or a map.

To create a dataset in Vesta, a compatible files type must be imported using the import function in Vesta. Compatible data file types are:

Shapefile

A shapefile (.shp, and its associated files, .shx, .prj, .dbf, and .cpg) is the native file used in esri products (such as ArcGIS). Shapefiles contain geographic information used to create maps or to project geographic features on an existing map. The geographic data can have different "shapes", such as polygons, lines and points. Polygons could be used to represent counties or regions on a map, while lines and points could be used to represent property borders and city geographic locations, respectively.

In all cases, each geographic shape has a unique identifier that is used to link the shape with any characteristic data, called attribute data (could be temperature at a time of year, population, percent of college educated voters, or any number of characterizing data.) These can be seen as the variables in the data.

Shapefiles generally do not contain attribute data - this data must be added either by modifying the shapefile itself or analyzing a shapefile along with another file containing attribute data that corresponds to the shapefile of interest.

Note that when importing a shapefile, it and its associated files listed above must all be in the same folder. The associated files serve supporting information so that the shapefile imports and displays correctly.

Excel File

Usually created by the user, Excel files (.xlsx or .xls) contain any sort of tabulated data. When imported in Vesta, excel files generally contain only attribute data and are merged with an existing geography.

In some cases Excel files also include information on the geographic location of data points (i.e., x- and y-coordinates) and these need to be expressed as latitude and longitude (WGS 1984 format).

Note That formulas in cells are imported as values and cannot be manipulated once in Vesta.

Text File

Text files (.csv or .txt) contain tabulated data, similar to excel files.