Extracting Data from CDROM Sources

These pages are designed for students in Intro to Finance and other elementary Finance courses.

These pages are not meant to replace your textbook. They are provided as an adjunct to help you with practical problems and assignments.

Introduction

This page is designed to give general instructions for the process of extracting data from the CDROM sources available at the Weinberg Reference Desk and Inserting the data into spreadsheet files that will be sued to submit your final report.

The following symbols are used to help with the explanation:

indicates the data source CDROM at the library. This will be either Compact Disclosure or Compustat.

indicates the spreadsheet file that is the destination for your data.

You need to have a plan!

1. Know what the resources can do
2. Break your project up into manageable sized pieces.
3. Get the data from the CDROM.
4. Insert into the spreadsheet.
5. Clean up the spreadsheet.
6. Make a backup.

CDROM Resources

COMPACT DISCLOSURE--A computerized version of a company's 10-K report that is filed annually with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Every publicly traded company must do it every year. This CDROM provides the backbone for your report. It includes text material and financial data for about five years for most companies. NEVER PRINT this report out. That is a waste of time. The object of your effort at the Reference area will be to find your company in the database and transfer the FULL COMPANY REPORT to your diskette in ASCII or text format.

COMPUSTAT a database that covers all publicly traded companies for the past 20 years. It does not have all the text and discussion but it has a wealth of data for all companies for a long time. You will use it to answer certain questions and make comparisons as you are completing your report. Your session at the Reference area with this CDROM will be more complex and you will have to have a fairly good idea of what you want before you get to the Library. The object of your effort will be to generate rather small text files that will give you the data to answer certain questions pertaining to your company. Do not generate massive data files. The text files that you generate will be saved to your diskette and then inserted into your report and then probably analyzed with charts.

BASIC PROCEDURE

• Use one diskette for this project alone
• Put the Full Company Report from COMPACT DISCLOSURE on this diskette
• Open text file you saved in the library. You do this by changing the default .wk4 in the dialog box to txt files. Click on the Text file options buttons and set the column delimiter to TAB if it is not already selected [or comma delimited if that's how you saved it at the library].
• Eliminate everything in the spreadsheet file EXCEPT The preliminary identifiers, annual income statements and balance sheets and ratio analysis. Don't worry all the data is still in the text file if you need it later.
• Save the spreadsheet file.
• As you answer specific questions according to the plan discussed in class for your project you will need to get more long term data from the Library. Decide exactly what you want to get and for what time period, say you need the average collection period and the debt ratio for the past twenty years.
• Get the COMPUSTAT CDROM at the reference desk. From the starting menu click on the button along the left margin for REPORTS. Click on the BUILDER button. use the next dialog box to select and add various items for your report. Click on NEXT button after you have selected all your variables. You define the time period you want by clicking the arrow buttons for the time periods [ -20 for previous 20 years] be careful here.
• Now you are ready to run the report you designed. Click on the little man button on the top menubar. Type in the ticker symbol for you company in the dialog box. Click on the OK button. The report may be visible with a graph on the screen but it will be too squished up to really understand. Click FILE, SAVE AS from the top menubar. Make sure you save it to the A: drive. This process will put a text file on your disk delimited by tabs. It will contain all the necessary data for you to insert in your spreadsheet.
• Now you are going to add the data from COMPUSTAT to the data already in the spreadsheet from COMPACT Disclosure. Open you project spreadsheet. Make sure the cursor is in column A and below your any data in the spreadsheet. Now the next step is going to be similar to what you did the first time except that this time you have to click the INSERT button in the open file dialogue box.
• On the spreadsheet you will construct a CHART showing the data that will look something like the sample below to help illustrate your answers

Comments and Suggestions should may be sent togramborw@tiger.uofs.edu