Ingesting data is the process of moving data from outside of H2O into the running instance of H2O. To ingest data start from the drop down menu Data, and select the appropriate option. Options and their uses are described below.
Import Files:
In the path field specify an absolute path to the file. For example: Users/UserName/Work/dataset.csv. Press submit.
On the resulting screen the specified path will appear as a highlighted link. Clicking on the path automatically parses the data.
Import URL:
Copy the URL where the raw data are displayed into the URL field. Users may wish to specify a Key; one is usually assigned using the original file name. In this case the URL will become part of the .hex, unless Key is otherwise specified. For example, original data can be found at: http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/machine-learning-databases/internet_ads/ad.data
Once the data are imported, users will be automatically sent to the Import URL page, where they can click on the KEY. This automatically goes to the Inspect page. Users should not be worried at this point if data do not look as expected. This will be corrected when data are parsed.
Import S3:
In the field marked Bucket give the path to an existing AWS bucket where data are stored.Upload:
Click on the Select File button. A menu of files on the computer or working directory will appear. Select the appropriate file, and click on Choose. When returned to the H2O screen press Upload.
Once data are ingested, they are available to H2O, but are not yet in a format that H2O can process. Converting the data to an H2O usable format is called parsing.
After ingestion users are directed to a Request Parse screen. To parse data users can leave most options in default. For example, H2O automatically determines separators in data sets. For most data formats users will be automatically redirected to a page to request parse, where they can simply press submit. Exceptions to this are noted below. Once data are parsed a .hex key is displayed for the user. This .hex key will be used to refer to the data set in all H2O analysis, and should be noted. It can also be found at a later time through the Admin menu by selecting Jobs, or through the Data menu, by choosing View All.
Import URL:
Click on “Parse into .hex format” displayed at the top of the inspect page after data are inhaled. Import URL takes users directly to parse.Parser Behavior
The data type in each column must be consistent. For example, when data are alpha-coded categorical, all entries must be alpha or alpha numeric. If numeric entries are detected by the parser, the column will not be processed. It will register all entries as NA. This is also true when NA entries are included in columns consisting of numeric data. Columns of alpha coded categorical variables containing NA entries will register NA as a distinct factor level. When missing data are coded as periods or dots in the original data set those entries are converted to zero.
Each of the following actions can be found in the Data drop down menu.
Inspect:
Used to view a inhaled or parsed data set. Select Inspect from the drop down menu Data. In Key enter the key or .hex key associated with the desired data.View All:
Used to view all data sets that have been inhaled or parsed into H2O. To remove a dataset from H2O click on the red X next to the data set key.Summary:
Used to display descriptive statistics and histograms of any columns within a specific data set. Specify data by the associated .hex key in the Key field, and select variables of interest from the resulting list of variables. Summary can be found under the Model drop down menu.
Users who wish to manipulate their data after it has been parsed into H2O have a set of tools to do via H2O + R. To learn more about data manipulation refer to R Tutorial.