Time Series Data

Each time series field contains the data for a single time series. This structure is the traditional structure of time series data, as used by the Time Series Modeler procedure, the Seasonal Decomposition procedure, and the Spectral Plots procedure. For example, to define a time series in the Data Editor, click the Variable View tab and enter a variable name in any blank row. Each observation in a time series corresponds to a case (a row in the Data Editor).

If you open a spreadsheet that contains time series data, each series should be arranged in a column in the spreadsheet. If you already have a spreadsheet with time series arranged in rows, you can open it anyway and use Transpose on the Data menu to flip the rows into columns.

For example, sales data for different regions and brands might be stored in a single sales field, so that the dimensions in this case are region and brand. Each combination of region and brand identifies a particular time series for sales. For example, in the following table, the records that have 'north' for region and 'brandX' for brand define a single time series.