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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
Computation with Structured Datasets
  • Functions
    • All
    • Append
    • Association
    • AssociationMap
    • AssociationThread
    • Column
    • Count
    • Counts
    • CountsBy
    • Dataset
    • Delete
    • DeleteDuplicates
    • DeleteMissing
    • Drop
    • EntityValue
    • Function
    • Grid
    • GroupBy
    • Insert
    • JoinAcross
    • Keys
    • List
    • Lookup
    • Max
    • Mean
    • Median
    • MenuView
    • Merge
    • Min
    • Missing
    • MissingBehavior
    • Multicolumn
    • PositionIndex
    • Query
    • ResourceData
    • Select
    • SelectFirst
    • SemanticImport
    • Sort
    • SortBy
    • Span
    • Tabular
    • TabView
    • Take
    • TakeLargest
    • TakeLargestBy
    • TakeSmallest
    • TakeSmallestBy
    • Total
    • Union
    • Values
    • WebImageSearch
    • WebSearch
  • Related Guides
    • Database-Like Operations on Datasets
    • Handling Arrays of Data
    • Structured Data in the Cloud
    • Database Connectivity
    • Associations
  • Related Workflow Guides
    • Importing and Analyzing Data
    • Functions
      • All
      • Append
      • Association
      • AssociationMap
      • AssociationThread
      • Column
      • Count
      • Counts
      • CountsBy
      • Dataset
      • Delete
      • DeleteDuplicates
      • DeleteMissing
      • Drop
      • EntityValue
      • Function
      • Grid
      • GroupBy
      • Insert
      • JoinAcross
      • Keys
      • List
      • Lookup
      • Max
      • Mean
      • Median
      • MenuView
      • Merge
      • Min
      • Missing
      • MissingBehavior
      • Multicolumn
      • PositionIndex
      • Query
      • ResourceData
      • Select
      • SelectFirst
      • SemanticImport
      • Sort
      • SortBy
      • Span
      • Tabular
      • TabView
      • Take
      • TakeLargest
      • TakeLargestBy
      • TakeSmallest
      • TakeSmallestBy
      • Total
      • Union
      • Values
      • WebImageSearch
      • WebSearch
    • Related Guides
      • Database-Like Operations on Datasets
      • Handling Arrays of Data
      • Structured Data in the Cloud
      • Database Connectivity
      • Associations
    • Related Workflow Guides
      • Importing and Analyzing Data
GUIDE
  • Functions
    • All
    • Append
    • Association
    • AssociationMap
    • AssociationThread
    • Column
    • Count
    • Counts
    • CountsBy
    • Dataset
    • Delete
    • DeleteDuplicates
    • DeleteMissing
    • Drop
    • EntityValue
    • Function
    • Grid
    • GroupBy
    • Insert
    • JoinAcross
    • Keys
    • List
    • Lookup
    • Max
    • Mean
    • Median
    • MenuView
    • Merge
    • Min
    • Missing
    • MissingBehavior
    • Multicolumn
    • PositionIndex
    • Query
    • ResourceData
    • Select
    • SelectFirst
    • SemanticImport
    • Sort
    • SortBy
    • Span
    • Tabular
    • TabView
    • Take
    • TakeLargest
    • TakeLargestBy
    • TakeSmallest
    • TakeSmallestBy
    • Total
    • Union
    • Values
    • WebImageSearch
    • WebSearch
  • Related Guides
    • Database-Like Operations on Datasets
    • Handling Arrays of Data
    • Structured Data in the Cloud
    • Database Connectivity
    • Associations
  • Related Workflow Guides
    • Importing and Analyzing Data
    • Functions
      • All
      • Append
      • Association
      • AssociationMap
      • AssociationThread
      • Column
      • Count
      • Counts
      • CountsBy
      • Dataset
      • Delete
      • DeleteDuplicates
      • DeleteMissing
      • Drop
      • EntityValue
      • Function
      • Grid
      • GroupBy
      • Insert
      • JoinAcross
      • Keys
      • List
      • Lookup
      • Max
      • Mean
      • Median
      • MenuView
      • Merge
      • Min
      • Missing
      • MissingBehavior
      • Multicolumn
      • PositionIndex
      • Query
      • ResourceData
      • Select
      • SelectFirst
      • SemanticImport
      • Sort
      • SortBy
      • Span
      • Tabular
      • TabView
      • Take
      • TakeLargest
      • TakeLargestBy
      • TakeSmallest
      • TakeSmallestBy
      • Total
      • Union
      • Values
      • WebImageSearch
      • WebSearch
    • Related Guides
      • Database-Like Operations on Datasets
      • Handling Arrays of Data
      • Structured Data in the Cloud
      • Database Connectivity
      • Associations
    • Related Workflow Guides
      • Importing and Analyzing Data

Computation with Structured Datasets

The symbolic character of the Wolfram Language allows it to support an unprecedentedly flexible and general approach to structured datasets. Unifying both relational (SQL-like) and hierarchical (no-SQL) approaches, the Wolfram Language incorporates a new kind of uniquely powerful data query language—with seamless scaling from direct in-memory computation to computations backed by external files or databases.

Tabular — general representation of 2D table data

Dataset — a general hierarchical dataset containing nested lists and associations

Query — represent a hierarchical query on a dataset or other expression

{e1,e2,…} — a list of values (List)

<|key1->e1,key2->e2,…|> — an association of keys and values (Association)

dataset[…] — apply transformations to a dataset

dataset[[…]] — extract parts from a dataset

Explicit Parts of Datasets

dataset[[…,part,…]] — a numbered or named part at any level

All — all parts at a given level

Span (;;) — a span of parts at a given level

Keys, Values — keys, values in associations

Selections and Transformations

Select — parts selected to satisfy a criterion

SelectFirst  ▪  Count  ▪  Counts  ▪  CountsBy  ▪  GroupBy

Sort  ▪  SortBy  ▪  Union  ▪  DeleteDuplicates

TakeLargest  ▪  TakeSmallest  ▪  TakeLargestBy  ▪  TakeSmallestBy

Lookup — look up sets of values from associations

Missing Values

Missing — represent a missing value

DeleteMissing — delete missing values

MissingBehavior — control computations with missing values

Relational Data

JoinAcross — combine tables by column

Merge — combine associations by key

Custom Query Construction

Function  ▪  Query

Data Computations

Total  ▪  Mean  ▪  Median  ▪  Min  ▪  Max  ▪  ...

Basic Structural Operations

Insert  ▪  Delete  ▪  Append  ▪  Take  ▪  Drop  ▪  ...

Dataset Presentation

Grid  ▪  Column  ▪  Multicolumn  ▪  TabView  ▪  MenuView

Creating Associations

Association — turn a list of rules into an association

AssociationMap — create an association by applying a function to a list of keys

AssociationThread — create an association from a list of keys and a list of values

Counts, CountsBy — associate values with the number of times they occur

GroupBy — group values by collecting those sharing a criterion

PositionIndex — build an index of positions at which values occur

Creating Datasets

SemanticImport — import a file as a Dataset

EntityValue — obtain data from the Wolfram Knowledgebase in the form of a Dataset

ResourceData — get data from the Wolfram Data Repository, often as a Dataset

WebSearch  ▪  WebImageSearch

Related Workflow Guides

    ▪
  • Importing and Analyzing Data

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Database-Like Operations on Datasets
  • ▪
  • Handling Arrays of Data
  • ▪
  • Structured Data in the Cloud
  • ▪
  • Database Connectivity
  • ▪
  • Associations
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