Data-Access. An Excel macro-based dialog box uses a Microsoft Access database to automatically retrieve data- groups based on pre-defined queries. These queries can easily be modified to suit changing needs, or link to different database environments. Another option is to copy and paste data into the working area for data-reduction tools. Generally, large data-sets are reduced by using existing criteria within the data set such as year, month, a physical boundary, a certain well, etc. The data-reduction technique provided here needs no such criteria—and is simple, yet powerful. The user may choose any numerical data-reduction rate. For example, if the user chooses the data-reduction rate of 100:1, the program processes each consecutive group of 100 data points and reduces it to a single data-point. The data set for each reduction-group is selected sequentially from the top of the data-table to the last value at the bottom. Prior to applying data-reduction, the user may pre-sort the data-table as needed. For The Geysers, we pre-sorted the data-table by year, month, and a random number. This sorted the data-table into an in- time sequence without any other bias. In certain instances, introducing the random factor may have contributed to the unnecessary scatter of data, when sequential data-sets may have been more appropriate. The user can choose how the single data-points are generated. Some of the choices include: an average, an average ignoring some highest and lowest values, summation, cumulative, median, mode, and largest or smallest number. When compared to traditional data-reduction by criteria, some results may appear to be unusual. For example, if data are reduced by selecting average or cumulative, the results will be similar to the normal data-reduction techniques, but if reducing by “summing,” the resulting sums will yield higher values with a larger data-reduction rate. Detailed instructions are provided in the Help menu of each tool. Special care has been taken to maximize the automation, so the user can run as many different combinations as possible in the shortest amount of time.
