Your data
Working from a file
You do not need a database to use DataBelta. Upload an Excel workbook or a CSV and Belta answers questions about it the same way it would answer about a live system.
This is the fastest way to see the product working on your own numbers, and for many teams it is not a demo step at all. A monthly export, a sales sheet or a stock report is often the file everyone already argues over, and it is a perfectly good thing to ask questions of.
Upload a file
- 1Open Settings, choose Databases, and press Add a database.
- 2Switch the toggle to Upload a spreadsheet.
- 3Give it a name. Something like Q1 sales export, so the person choosing it in chat knows what period they are asking about.
- 4Drop the file into the box, or click to choose one. Accepted formats are .xlsx and .csv, up to 50 MB.
- 5Press Add database.
How the file is read
- Each sheet in a workbook becomes a table, named after the sheet. A CSV becomes a single table.
- The first row is treated as the column headers, so give your columns real names rather than leaving them as A, B and C.
- Belta queries the uploaded data under the same read-only rules as any other connection.
Replacing the file
Edit the connection and choose a new file. The panel tells you which file is currently in use and how large it is, so you can confirm you are replacing the right one. Anything you saved from the old file stays saved, but refreshing a saved chart or table re-runs its query against the new file.
Getting better answers out of a spreadsheet
A database has structure imposed on it. A spreadsheet has whatever structure the person who made it felt like. These few things make the difference.
- One header row, at the top, with no blank rows above it.
- One kind of thing per sheet. A sheet that holds orders in the top half and a summary underneath will be read as one confusing table.
- No merged cells across the header row.
- Dates in a real date column rather than as text, so they can be grouped by month.
- Numbers as numbers. A column with commas, currency symbols or spaces in it is read as text and cannot be summed.
Storage and the 50 MB ceiling
An uploaded spreadsheet does not count against your workspace storage allowance. That allowance covers the files Belta generates and you save, and the Usage tab in Settings shows where you stand against it. The 50 MB ceiling is per file, and it is the only size limit an upload has to clear.
The same vocabulary tools apply
The Schema prompt and Analytics prompt on the Databases tab work for uploaded files exactly as they do for a live database. If a column name is a code that only your team understands, write down what it means there once, and every answer improves.