[Mesquitelist] Character matrices

[Kevin Arbuckle]

Hi Patrick, I believe the problem may be in the fact that Mesquite's character matrices have to be in the same data format (e.g. categorical OR continuous characters). If you have both types of data you should create a character matrix for each and then paste over the correct data columns for each type of charactr matrix. If you try to copy a continuous character (your data with decimal points I assume?) into a categorical matrix Mesquite gets a bit confused and seems to assume you mean some combination of characters. Hope this is helpful? Best wishes, Kevin Arbuckle
 > From: mesquitelist-request at mesquiteproject.org
> Subject: Mesquitelist Digest, Vol 70, Issue 1
> To: mesquitelist at mesquiteproject.org
> Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 12:00:03 -0800
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>    1. Troubleshooting character matrix formatting,	copy-paste from
>       excel (Patrick Moldowan)
> 
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 09:33:17 -0500 (EST)
> From: Patrick Moldowan <pmoldowa at uoguelph.ca>
> Subject: [Mesquitelist] Troubleshooting character matrix formatting,
> 	copy-paste from excel
> To: mesquitelist  <mesquitelist at mesquiteproject.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<1603741611.471089.1331130797661.JavaMail.root at simcoe.cs.uoguelph.ca>
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> 
> Dear Mesquite users,
> 
> I have recently encountered a problem when pasting values into a character matrix and I am seeking troubleshooting advice.
> 
> In all I have a character matrix composed of 104 taxa and 12 traits.  Presently all my data is stored in Excel 2007 and I have been attempting to paste it into a character matrix associated with my composed phylogeny.  The Excel data sheet and character matrix are a perfect fit (i.e. there is the exact number of data ?boxes? in both matrices).   
> 
> When attempting to paste data from Excel into the character matrix there are formatting complications when a decimal point is present, but no problems in the case of whole numbers.  For example, copying ?2.12? from Excel pastes in the Mesquite character matrix as ?1&2?.  Similarly, ?3.62? results in ?2&3&6?.   If I paste whole numbers from Excel to Mesquite, such as ?1? or ?2?, these transfer with no problems.  I believe that the issue is in the use of a decimal point.
> 
> I have tried pasting one row or column at a time as well, but with no success.   I have tried to remove any formatting that Excel have and have copied data into a simple text file (with Notepad), but neither attempts have resolved the issue.  I am kindly looking for any suggestions that will allow me to get around the formatting issues when transferring data from Excel 2010 to my character matrix in Mesquite.  
> 
> Thank you very much for your time!  Sincerely,
> 
> - Patrick Moldowan
> ---------------------------
> B.Sc. Candidate 2012
> Wildlife Biology, Honours
> University of Guelph
> ON, Canada
> pmoldowa at uoguelph.ca
> ----------------------------
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