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🙏 Summary and Tabulate: add aggregation option for Character columns

☑ cool new feature
☑ could help many users!

☐ removes a „bug“

☐ nice to have

☐ nobody needs it

 

#myTop10_2023a

 

What inspired this wish list request? 

 

Some days ago, I posted here a wish Tables/Update: add aggregation option .

The idea: aggregate the data of the update table before it's merged into the main table.

This could make Tables/Update much faster (!) AND more powerful.

 

Hm. Actually a user could implement the feature right away if he applies 2 steps:

1) aggregate via Tables/Summary

2) merge via Tables/Update.

 

But that's not true - because some aggregation options were proposed which are not available yet in Tables/Summary - those for non-numeric values like first/last entry,  mode ...

 

So, if there is something missing in Jmp ...
let's write a wish
(especially as @jthi already proposed to do so: https://community.jmp.com/t5/Discussions/Summarize-Function/m-p/658685/highlight/true#M84794 )

 

Actuall, in 2019, @ewittry1  posted  first version of this wish - to add an aggregation option for character columns in Tables/Summary (via concat):
Summerize/Summary aggregation function for character data. Concat Charcter Vector into a Scalar (by) 

Amazingly useful!

 

Unfortunately, the wish was archived at that time. So, here is a new wish:

 

What is the improvement you would like to see? 

Please add aggregation functions for Character columns 

.... to Tables/Summary AND Analyze/Tabulate.

 

Possible aggregation options are:

  • mode (most common entry)
  • entry of first matching row
  • entry of last matching row
  • concatenate the entries of all matching rows (with space, comma, underscore)
    option: drop multiples
  • are all values the same?
  • number of distinct values
  • concatenate distinct 
  • *)

 

Why is this idea important? 

With the current version of Jmp, users can use Summary and Tabulate just for numeric values.

 

With a future version of Jmp users will be able to use Summary and Tabulate for ANY table, including character columns.
They just have to choose the character aggregation which fits their needs.

 

*) I guess there are many more aggregation options for text.
What are the other ones?

 

 

 

 

more wishes submitted by  hogi_2-1702196401638.png

4 Comments
hogi
Level XI

If you decide to implement character aggregation in Jmp, don't forget to use it as well for Graph Builder/Color/summary Statistics

Heatmap Plot - mixing colors 

 

hogi_0-1689681007836.png

 

Status changed to: Acknowledged
 
hogi
Level XI

Along the discussion Column formula: How to correctly combine character columns that have missing entries? triggered by @SDF1 ,

... perhaps it's worth to add some character aggregation functionality as well as formula columns via New Formula Column right click menu?

 

  • mode (most common entry) over all columns
  • first non-missing entry
  • last non-missing entry
  • are all values the same?
  • number of distinct values
  • concatenate distinct 

already available: 

  • concatenate the entries (with space, comma, underscore)
Status changed to: Investigating

Hi @hogi! This request will be considered as part of a broader initiative to improve Summary, Tabulate and the ability for users to customize the available statistics.  This project may or may not address your request directly but should improve the overall experience. I will leave as investigating until we have more details on implementation.