Edit your air quality data's timestamp

After downloading air quality data from your AirVisual monitor, you may want to edit the data's timestamp information so that the data is more easily managed for analysis.

The monitor's downloaded data usually appears in a column with the following format:

Mon Sep 17 2018 16:00:00 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

You can separate and simplify this timestamp with these simple steps, in Excel:

1) Find and replace

Once you are aware of the data's timestamp, you may want to remove this information from your analysis. You can do this from Excel's 'Home' tab > Find and select > Replace...

Enter the information you want to remove from the timestamp into the 'Find' box, e.g. "GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)", and leave the "Replace" field blank. Click to "Replace all".

2) Delete the top 3 rows of your spreadsheet file (including device serial number & report type, as well as the column headings), so that you are just left with the raw measurements.

3) Select column A, including the timestamp information. From the 'Data' tab, select 'Text to Columns.

Within the wizard pop up:

1. "Fixed width" should be selected, click 'Next'
2. Check that the break lines are where you want for analysis - add/remove as needed. Click 'Next'
3. Choose between 'General' or under 'Date', you can choose your preferred date format. Click 'Finish'

Prompt: "There's already data here. Do you want to replace it?" > click "OK"

Finally, you can replace the column headings as required.

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