Creating New Variables from Spreadsheet Data

How can you derive new variables based on the data provided in a spreadsheet?

What are some examples of variables that can be created from existing data in a spreadsheet?

Answer:

You can create new, derived variables in a spreadsheet based on your existing data. This includes things like average temperature (calculated by adding all readings and dividing by their number), heating degree days and cooling degree days (calculated relative to a reference temperature), and polynomials based on max daily temperature (for forecasting or other analysis).

The question refers to creating variables based on data from a spreadsheet. Let's focus on the example of creating an 'average temperature'. To do this, you collect all the recorded temperatures for a specific period, add them together, and divide by the total number of readings you had. For example, if you recorded temperatures of 20, 22, 21 and 23 degrees over four days, the average would be (20+22+21+23)/4 = 21.5 degrees.

'Heating degree days' and 'cooling degree days' are also interesting variables. They represent the number of degrees that a day's average temperature is below or above a certain reference base temperature and are used to estimate energy needs for heating or cooling a building.

'Max daily temperature' is simply the highest recorded temperature in a given day. You can create a polynomial of the max daily temperature for forecasting future temperatures or other related studies.