Origin - Importing Data

Origin imports many popular data formats such as: ASCII, Binary, Lotus®, Excel, dBase®, DIF, WAV, Mathematica® vectors and matrices, LabTech™, KaleidaGraph™, and Axon Binary Files.

Origin offers special utilities for ASCII import such as multiple-file selection dialogs and ultra-fast import routines. If your data is in ASCII format, you'll find that Origin's default ASCII import settings will likely import your data without a hitch. Using the default settings, Origin automatically examines your data file and determines whether each column contains text, numeric, or text and numeric data, and performs the import automatically.

If you have to process many ASCII files, the Import Multiple ASCII dialog provides an easy way to select all needed files in one step. You can also setup the way the data is to be structured, such as XYXY or XYY.

You can also import data from a database using ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). If you have an ODBC driver for your database, you can run queries right from Origin, and have the data of interest appear directly in the Origin worksheet - ready to be graphed and analyzed.