How to create and prepare your first dataset in Salesforce Einstein

[box type="note" align="" class="" width=""]The following extract is taken from the book Learning Einstein Analytics written by Santosh Chitalkar. This book will help you learn Salesforce Einstein analytics, to get insights faster and understand your customer better.[/box]

In this article, we see how to start your analytics journey using Salesforce Einstein by taking the first step in the process i.e; by creating and preparing your dataset!

A dataset is a set of source data, specially formatted and optimized for interactive exploration. Here are the steps to create a new dataset in Salesforce Einstein:

1. Click on the Create button in the top-right corner and then click on Dataset. You can see the following three options to create datasets:

• CSV File

• Salesforce

• Informatica Rev

2. Select CSV File and click on Continue, as shown in the following screenshot:

3. Select the Account_data.csv file or drag and drop the file.

4. Click on Next. The next screen uploads the user interface to create a single dataset by using the external.csv file:

5. Click on Next to proceed as shown in the following screenshot:

6. Change the dataset name if you want. You can select an application to store the dataset. You can also replace the CSV file from this screen.

7. Click on in the Data Schema File section and select the Replace File option to change the file. You can also download the uploaded .csv file from here as shown in the following screenshot:

8. Click on Next. In the next screen, you can change field attributes such as column name, dimensions, field type, and so on.

9. Click on the Next button and it will start uploading the file in Analytics and queuing it in dataflow. Once done click on the Got it button.

10. Wait for 10-15 minutes (depending on the data, it may take a longer time to create the dataset).

11. Go to Analytics Studio and open the DATASETS tab. You can see the Account_data dataset as shown in the following screenshot:

Congrats!!! You have created your first dataset.

Let's now update this dataset with the same information but with some additional columns.

Updating datasets

We need to update the dataset to add new fields, change application settings, remove fields, and so on. Einstein Analytics gives users the flexibility to update the dataset. Here are the steps to update an existing dataset:

1. Create a CSV file to include some new fields and name it Account_Data_Updated.
2. Save the file to a location that you can easily remember.
3. In Salesforce, go to the Analytics Studio home page and find the dataset. Hover over the dataset and click on the button, then click on Edit, as shown in the following screenshot:

4. Salesforce displays the dataset editing screen. Click on the Replace Data button in the top-right corner of the page:

5. Click on the Next button and upload your new CSV file using upload UI.

6. Click on the Next button again to get to the next screen for editing and click on Next again.

7. Click on Replace as shown in the following screenshot:

Voila! You’ve successfully updated your dataset. As you can see it’s fairly easy to create and then update the dataset if required, using Einstein without any hassle.

If you found this post useful, make sure to check out our book Learning Einstein Analytics for more tips and techniques on using Einstein Analytics effectively to uncover unique insights from your data.