# Export the raw data (track and dependent variables)

Aim

To export the x,y coordinates and the subject size for each sample together with the values of the dependent variables selected in the currently active analysis profile, including manually-scored behaviors and automatically recognized behaviors. The raw data file includes the independent variables that you defined in the Trial List.

Procedure

1.Choose Analysis > Export > Raw Data, or in the Experiment Explorer under Analysis - Export click Raw Data.

2.In the Raw Data Export window, select the Track Smoothing profile, the Data profile and the Analysis profile that define the data to be exported.

3.Under Data to Export, select Track & dependent variables.

4.Click Browse next to Destination folder and navigate to the location where you want to save the export files.

5. Under File Type, select either ANSI text (*.txt), Excel (*.xlsx), or Unicode text - default (*.txt). For text export, enter the Delimiter character you want to use to separate columns in the exported file.

6.Next to Missing value representation, choose the character that you want to use to mark missing values.

7.Click Start export.

Options

File type

▪If you export to text, data of each subject (track) is exported to a separate file. Each file name is unique, and is formed by, in the following order: Raw Data (or Manual Scoring, depending on what option you have chosen) - Experiment name - Trial number - Arena name - Subject name.

For example Raw Data-Open Field-Trial 1-Arena 1-Subject 1.txt

▪Choose Unicode text to export according to the Unicode character set. This supports most world languages, including Chinese. Choose ANSI text to export the data as text files according to the ANSI character set. Choose this option only if the application in which you will open the exported file cannot handle the Unicode character set.

▪If you export to Excel, the file contains all tracks of a trial. The file name is unique and formed by the following elements: Raw data (independent of the type of export) - Experiment name - Trial number.

For example Raw Data-Plus Maze-Trial 1.xlsx.

Data of each subject is written in a separate tab of the worksheet, named for example Track-Arena 1-Subject 1.

important If your tracks contain more than approximately one million samples, Excel is unable to load the exported file. With 30 samples per second, this happens just after 9 hours. To solve this, export the file to text and use the Excel macro SplitTxtFiles.xlsm. You can find this file on my.noldus.com, under Downloads > EthoVision XT > Drivers and tools.

Manual scoring log

▪If you want to export the manually-scored behaviors to The Observer XT, or in a format like for example, 5.12s Rearing, 5.88s Not Rearing, choose Manual scoring log.

▪You can also export behaviors (both manually-scored and automatically recognized) in the same format as the other dependent variables, where a behavior is scored as 0 or 1 for each sample time, depending on whether it occurs or not at that time. Choose Track & dependent variables. Make sure that the Analysis profiles includes the behaviors to export.

Trial Control data

▪Choose Track & dependent variables also if you want to export Trial Control events and states defined in your Analysis profile. For example, to export the state ‘from Cue light on To Subject in Feeder zone’. The state is exported as a series of 0s and 1s (0= state not active, 1= state active) in the corresponding column of the export file.

▪Choose Trial Control log if you want to export Trial Control events and states with their own time stamp, for example 6.8 s - Cue light on - Activated. For more information, see Export Trial Control data.

Hardware log

Choose Hardware log if you want to export the complete log of events of hardware devices as a separate file. See the EthoVision XT 19 - Trial and Hardware Control - Reference Manual.

External data

Choose External data log (not resampled) if you want to export the values of the physiological data streams. Note that these export file contain the original data, not the resampled data that appear in the EthoVision XT analysis profile. See External Data

Missing value representation

Enter the character for missing values. By default, missing values are exported as “-”. See also Export settings for specific applications

A missing value is exported in the following cases:

▪The X,Y coordinates of a missing body point.

▪The values of a dependent variable that could not be calculated for that sample. For example, the distance moved when the previous sample was missing.

File names, folders, and data format

▪If you export the same data multiple times to the same location, EthoVision XT attaches a number at the end of the file name: (1), (2), etc.

▪The files' suggested location is the Export Files folder located in your experiment folder. See File locations

▪The values exported have a variable number of decimals, depending on the number of integers. The total number of significant digits exported is always six (for example, 1.23456 or 1234.56), or seven if the unsigned number is smaller than one (0.123456).

The raw data file

Below: Part of a raw data file, opened in Excel. Top: Headers with independent variables. Bottom: data lines with time, x,y coordinates, subject area and dependent variables (one line per sample).

Reading the raw data file

▪The track file export takes into account your data selection for entire tracks, but not for within tracks. So, if you make a data selection such that you only have track 1 and only zone 1, EthoVision will export track 1, but the entire track. If you want to filter out zone 1 in your track data, you should include the zone as a dependent variable and then filter on that column in Excel. The result column in the export file has values 0 and 1 dependent on the fact if the data selection criteria were met (1) or not met (0).

▪Trial time is the time elapsed from the start of the trial (basically, the moment when you clicked the green Start button). Recording time is the time elapsed from the start of the track. The difference between the two time values is also shown next to the header Recording after. For more information on trials and tracks, see Important terms in Trial Control.

▪The values of the x,y coordinates and the subject size (Area) in the exported track files are expressed in calibrated units, (square) millimeters, (square) inches, etc., not in pixels.

▪Areachange is the change in the pixels of the subject area from the previous sample, used to calculate Mobility. Note that this is not the same as the difference in Area between the current sample and the previous one.

▪Samples that were missing (EthoVision XT could not analyze the video image) or not found (EthoVision XT could not find the subject) are indicated by "-" instead of the coordinate values. Note that sometimes the center point is found, not the nose point or the tail base (or neither of the two).

To see the proportion of samples that were not found in a trial, in the Trial list click the Show/Hide button on the toolbar, choose Variables and select Subject not found. Check the value in the column Subject not found corresponding to that trial.

▪Excel can import a limited number of rows and columns. For Excel 2007 and newer versions this is 16384 rows and 1048576 columns. Excel will only import the maximum number of rows. If necessary, you can import the exported files to another program like SPSS.