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Question & Answer
Question
How can you change the values in an IBM i2 Analyst's Notebook (ANB) import specification data column to allow the value to hold a valid ANB Entity Type?
Cause
When the data from the source file (such as an Excel Spreadsheet) is imported into ANB, the source data column is not a valid entity type, and the entity representation will not appear correctly. It will display a circle by default.
For example, if you are trying to import a US State Entity Type into ANB and the import file has a State column that has the full State name, upon importing, the entity representation will be a circle rather than the icon that represents that particular US State.
US States entity types in ANB have the following format:
Alabama (AL)
.... and the import file State column has Alabama, hence this is not a valid ANB Entity Type.
Answer
There are a couple of ways to accomplish this.
- Use a substitution file. See the section Settings for Replace from Substitution File in the online Help in ANB.

- Add conditions to the Column Actions so that each data value in the column is a valid Entity Type.
- The substitution file would contain the following:


[{"Product":{"code":"SSXUXD","label":"i2 Analyst's Notebook"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Not Applicable","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"8.9.7;8.9.5;8.9.3;8.9.1;8.9","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB24","label":"Security Software"}}]
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Document Information
More support for:
i2 Analyst's Notebook
Software version:
8.9.7, 8.9.5, 8.9.3, 8.9.1, 8.9
Operating system(s):
Windows
Document number:
243257
Modified date:
16 June 2018
UID
swg21668659