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Getting started with Google BigQuery and GDELT Project

Getting started with Google BigQuery and GDELT

          Once upon the time, the new kid on the block left more established search engines in the dust, then, after reinventing web-based email service, Google introduced its Apps. Today, let’s talk about one of the myriad services Google offers to us: BigQuery. Basically, this cloud-based service allows us to utilize Google’s hardware to store our own datasets or access public data on the go. Google provides API for Java, PHP, and Python access. In addition, various third-party tools now connect directly to BigQuery: Tableau, R, JasperSoft, and Simba to name a few. We get a 1 TB monthly usage quota to query BigQuery’s data for free. Some of the downsides of this service include: premiums for storing our own data and querying in excess of the free quota. We are also limited with data manipulation tasks we can perform in BigQuery; in fact, we can only append records to our table, we cannot update or delete them. Finally, this service uses a SQL language dialect, which lacks some of the SQL commands we are accustomed to: DISTINCT comes to mind, or resort us to some convoluted workarounds (try using the TOP command.) Meet, the GDELT Project – “the largest, most comprehensive, and highest resolution open database of human society ever created.” In this tutorial, we will learn some interesting facts about different countries, using GDELT data in BigQuery.

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Calculate your age, WITHOUT using Excel’s DateDif function.


Calculate Your Age in Excel, without DATEDIF function

          My previous post on using Excel’s DATEDIF function resulted in rather productive discussions on LinkedIn. First of all, some users are concerned that the DATEDIF function will no longer be supported in Excel and will cease to exist at some point in the future. Microsoft openly states that “this function is provided for compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3.” , and given the history of this support, I don’t see why it will be discontinued. Nonetheless, I will make an attempt to replace DATEDIF function with other functions readily available in the program. Secondly, as a reminder that English is not the only language in the world, Microsoft created “local” versions of this function. A user confirmed existence of the SIFECHA function, but the syntax to use it, involves using semicolons, instead of commas. If you are using Spanish version of Excel, you might want to try both versions:

SIFECHA(fecha_inicial,fecha_final,unidad)
SIFECHA(fecha_inicial;fecha_final;unidad)

          According to this site , remaining versions of this function include:
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Calculate your age, using Excel’s DateDif function.


Excel's DateDif function - Calculate Your Age

          During this time of the year, most of us find ourselves performing some sorts of date manipulations in Excel: running year-end reports, creating a project plan for the next year, or simply setting up a new calendar. Let’s use one of Excel’s “hidden” functions to calculate one’s age in years, months, and days.

          We remember that Excel stores dates as serial numbers, in consecutive order. According to Microsoft, Day 1 fell on January 1st, 1900. Therefore, today’s date is equivalent to number 42,020 (meaning, 42,020 days passed since January 1st, 1900.) This makes it fairly easily to calculate difference between two dates [in days] by subtracting one date from another. While Excel does not support dates prior to January 1st, 1900 out of the box, if you need to work with such dates, John Walkenbach offers an Excel add in: XDate to help with this task.
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Using Nested If Statements.


Nested IF Function

          A reader asked me to explain logic behind the formula used in my Holiday Email post. That solution involved using multiple IF functions as arguments within another IF function, technique also known as nested IF logic. I find that the best way to use nested if functionality is through using decision trees AND Excel’s VBA syntax. Charting a decision tree will help us better understand the task at hand, and putting various conditions and the ways to handle them in writing, will prepare us to enter necessary formula in Excel.

          Let’s suppose that we need to implement the following logic with 4 possible scenarios. If the value of cell 1 is string “Case 1” AND cell 2 is string “Case 2”, we need the output to be 4. If cell 1 equals “Case 1”, but cell 2 does NOT equal “Case 2”, we need the output to be 3. If cell 1 does NOT equal “Case 1” , but cell 2 equals “Case 2”, the output should be 2. Finally, if cell 1 does not equal “Case 1”, NOR cell 2 equals “Case 2”, the output is 1. Hopefully, using the decision tree below makes it easier to conceptualize these scenarios.
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