<aside> ❗ Make sure you understand the concepts in Connecting to Data

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You can find an example for the different data source formats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVntBrC1GkWoYY0qRQpm3H5vsa7y7mBe-BPQ7dZEIns

Basic Time-Series

This is an example of the time-series format.

• Each row represents a single variable
• The first column must have the names of each variable
• The first row must have dates for each value

<aside> 🚨 Make sure that the values are actually formatted as Numbers, not Text.

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<aside> 🚨 Make sure that Google Sheets understands the Dates. Only then Causal can read them properly. The =ISDATE() function in Google Sheets can be used to check that.

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With Categories

This is an example of the time-series format with categories included. You can include several categories in your Google Sheet.

• Each row represents a single variable, for a single category item.
  • For example, row 5 in the example above represents the Website Revenue variable, when the Product category is Model X. Together, rows 4 through 6 make up the entire Website Revenue variable.
• The columns can be split into 3 sections: Variable Names, Categories, and Values
  • The first column must have the Variable Names
    • In the example above, column A has all the Variable Names
  • The next columns hold the Categories - the first row must have the name of the category, and the rows below may have the name of an item in that category
    • In the example above, columns B and C are the Categories columns
  • The last columns hold the Values - the first row must have dates, and the values themselves should be numbers (not text)
    • In the example above, columns D, E, F, G, ... are the Values columns

With Linked Categories