Investigating and Viewing Data

Daisy is a graphical, mouse-based system that has many ways to investigate the drawn Daisy or other charts, and the underlying database.

These include :-

• Zooming a Daisy Chart to look at parts of the chart in detail.

• Viewing the records associated with one or more nodes.

• Viewing the node values and details in a Daisy Grid.

• Viewing the links as a Daisy Grid.

• Applying selections and calculations to views and Daisy Grids.

• Export of selected data.

Typical Chart

The graphic below shows a typical Daisy Chart.

The data is contained in the file, TelephoneCalls.txt, which is supplied with all copies of Daisy and was drawn using the Date and Time Analysis Template stored in TelephoneCalls.dyt.

It is very much a typical Daisy Chart, that shows the relationship between the Day of the Week and Hour of the Day for a series of telephone calls.

Note the boxes or Nodes, labelled Sun, Mon etc., which are the key to accessing the underlying data.

** Tip - Click the chart to see it full size in another window.

Using the Mouse

There are three main ways to use the mouse to investigate the Daisy Chart :-

• The first and most powerful is to use the mouse to zoom in to a particular area of the chart. See Zooming Charts for more details.

• The mouse can also be used to select a node for investigating the records and node details at a particular node.

• The mouse can also be used in conjunction with various menu commands to select more than one node for more complicated processing.

• Move the mouse over a node and the node name will be displayed in a 'tool tip' style label.

It is often forgotten that the right click of the mouse is a very powerful feature in many Windows programs.

This is no exception in Daisy and depending on where the right click is invoked, you will get different popup menus tailored to the area of the click.

** Tip - Use the right click menus extensively!

Nodes

Click on any node in the chart and a detailed investigation window or dialog will be displayed.

Note 'Previous' and 'Next' which move from node to node.

Viewing Records

Click on 'Records' on the investigation window and they will be displayed in a simple Daisy Grid.

Note the buttons in the toolbar at the top of the grid.

• Close - Closes the Daisy Grid
• One - Shows one record only
• Find - Find a specific value in the grid
• Sort - Sorts the data according to the values in any column
• Print - Prints the data in the grid
• Daisy - Draws another Daisy Chart of the data

Viewing Links

Click on 'Links' on the investigation window and they will be displayed in a simple Daisy Grid.

Note that by default links are shown in decreasing order of weighting.

More Than One Node

Often you might want to select data from the database, based on two or more nodes. A typical selection might be all records that are on a 'Wednesday' between 7 and 8.

Use the 'Point and Click' sub-command in the Selected Records command from the View menu and then follow the instructions. (Alternatively, you can use the Control-R keystroke.)

In most cases, you just click on the nodes you wish to be included in the selection (In this case 'Wednesday' and 7!) and then click anywhere on the background to actually perform the selection.

Searching the WWW

In Daisy Standard or more powerful versions, the investigation window can be augmented with extra buttons which can be used to search the World Wide Web.

'News' and 'Search' are used to get 'News' and a 'Search' about the node name.

'Map' which draws maps of the location can also be added. In this example, a map button would in inappropriate!

Conclusion

Experiment and have fun!

Click that mouse everyehere!

Remember that as Daisy can't change the database you are perfectly safe.