Create a DataTable

Prerequisites

• You must have Owner or Admin permissions on any sheets where you want to build a DataTable Connection.
• You must have DataTable Premium Application permissions enabled in Admin Center by your Smartsheet System Admin.

To check your access level, sign in to DataTable:

Sign in to DataTable

Visit the DataTable Marketplace page to learn how to contact your Sales representative for pricing-related inquiries.

Create a DataTable

There are two ways to create a DataTable:

• Create an empty data table and populate the data later
• Use a Data Shuttle workflow

Once you've created your DataTable and added data, you can connect it to one or more sheets to support cross-team collaboration using a single, shared data source.

After creation, you can add, edit, or remove fields as needed. DataTable supports text, number, date, and checkbox fields. Choosing the correct field type is essential for accurate searching and filtering. For example, a field must be set to the Date type to filter or search by dates.

Create an empty DataTable

Using this method, you create an empty DataTable and then use a Data Shuttle workflow to populate the data. Creating the DataTable first gives you more data formatting options at setup.

1. On the left navigation bar, select Browse > DataTables.

2. In the top-right corner of the DataTables screen, select Create > Create a blank DataTable.
3. Follow the instructions on your screen.

You can edit the DataTable schema on the Settings page. 

Changes in the DataTable schema can affect your sheet connections and Data Shuttle workflows.

Create a DataTable with a Data Shuttle workflow

Create the DataTable and populate it with an initial dataset simultaneously.

1. On the left navigation bar, select Browse > DataTables.

2. In the top-right corner of the DataTables screen, select Create and then choose from the following options:

   • OneDrive

   • Google Drive

   • Box

   • Smartsheet attachment

3. Select Continue to Data Shuttle and log in to Data Shuttle if prompted.

4. Follow the instructions on your screen to build the workflow. Learn how to create an upload workflow in Data Shuttle.

5. After building your workflow, select Publish & Run to generate a Data Shuttle workflow that uploads your data and creates your DataTable.

You can continue using this Data Shuttle workflow to load new datasets into your DataTable.

Keep this in mind

• The import wizard automatically detects the source file's column headings and maps them to your DataTable schema.
• This method doesn’t support advanced date format options. The Data Shuttle workflow option only detects the standard ISO format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. If your source file contains a different format, create a blank DataTable using Option 1.
• The date format tells the DataTable how to parse the data in your CSV or Excel file when Data Shuttle loads data into your DataTable. For example, if you select 12/31/1999, DataTable expects your dates to be loaded in the format MM-DD-YYYY. If you load data into a DataTable without specifying the Date format, the expected date format is YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ; for example, 2020-09-17T00:00:00Z

Import data into a DataTable

Once you've created a DataTable, you can create DataShuttle workflows to populate the DataTable with additional data.

You can create multiple workflows for a single DataTable, but use the same unique identifier to prevent the addition of duplicates and empty fields on subsequent workflow runs. 

1. Log in to Data Shuttle.
2. Select the plus icon in the left navigation bar.
3. Select Upload Data and follow the instructions on your screen. 
4. For Target (Step 2), select DataTable and proceed with the setup.

Make sure to select the field type Number for any numeric data. DataTable doesn't interpret special characters (currency symbols, commas, percentage signs, etc.) as numeric values. Don’t include percent, commas, or currency symbols. Instead, format percentages as a decimal value (for example, 0.5 instead of 50%).

Learn more about DataShuttle.