Create and open Data Center projects

To work with data in the Minitab Data Center, create or open a Data Center project (.mdcx) file. Each project stores your data preparation steps, the source data reference, and the cleaned dataset.

In This Topic

Sign-in requirements
Create a project
Open a project
Minitab Data Center files

Sign-in requirements

Minitab Solution Center automatically saves all Data Center projects to a supported cloud repository. To use the Data Center, you must sign in to a supported repository:

Microsoft OneDrive®
Google Drive^TM

If you are not signed in to a supported repository, you will be prompted to authenticate. From the Home page in the Minitab Solution Center, follow the on-screen prompts to sign in, and then continue using the application.

Create a project

When you open a data source, Minitab Solution Center automatically creates a new Data Center project (.mdcx) and saves it to your default repository.

You can change file names and save locations. When you share an MDCX file, the linked files are not shared automatically. If you want recipients to have access to the linked data sources, you must share them separately.

To open a data source in the Data Center, complete the following steps.

Sign in to supported repository.
From the Solution Center home page, select Data Prep.
Select Add Data.
Browse to the file location, then select Open.

Next, you can review the data parsing steps such as trimming leading and trailing spaces from the Data Source node

or create other data prep steps from the Cleanup node

. For more information, go to Creating data pipelines.

Important

Changes in the Data Center do not affect the original data source file.

Open a project

Open a Data Center project (.mdcx) from a repository. MDCX files open in a new tab of the Data Center.

The Data Center does not support local files. To use a local file, you must do one of the following:

Upload the file to a supported repository.
Open directly in Minitab Statistical Software or Minitab Dashboards.

Minitab Data Center files

The Minitab Data Center has 2 types of files that can be opened only in the Minitab Data Center.

Project file (MDCX)

The Minitab Data Center project file saves all the information about your cleaned data, including configured cleanup steps, connection information to the source file, and read options.

Steps file (MDCS)

The Minitab Data Center steps file saves all configured data prep steps. With this file, you can import data prep steps to other files that match your data schema. For more information, go to Example of importing/exporting data prep steps.