Overview

Don't know Python or Excel formulas? No problem! Just tell Claude what you want to analyze in natural language, and it will process your CSV data and generate professional analysis reports and charts.

Use Cases

Sales data analysis: Calculate total sales, monthly statistics, find best-selling products
User behavior analysis: Analyze visits, conversion rates, user retention
Financial report analysis: Income/expense statistics, trend analysis, anomaly detection
Survey analysis: Option distribution statistics, cross-analysis

Steps

Step 1: Provide the Data File

Tell Claude the path to your CSV file:

Please analyze the sales data file at ~/Documents/sales_2024.csv

Or drag and drop the file directly into the chat.

Step 2: Claude Understands the Data Structure

Claude will first read the file and understand its structure:

I've read the file. Data overview:
- Total rows: 15,234 records
- Columns: Date, Product Name, Category, Quantity, Unit Price, Total Amount, Customer ID, Region
- Time range: 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Data quality: Found 23 rows with missing values, recommend handling

What would you like to analyze?

Step 3: Ask Questions in Natural Language

Describe what you want to know in plain language:

Please help me analyze:
1. Monthly sales trends
2. Top 10 products by sales
3. Sales percentage by region
4. Generate a visualization report

Step 4: Get Analysis Results

Claude will perform the analysis and display results:

## Sales Data Analysis Report

### 1. Monthly Sales Trends
| Month | Sales | Month-over-Month Growth |
|-------|-------|------------------------|
| Jan   | $128,450 | - |
| Feb   | $156,230 | +21.6% |
| Mar   | $189,670 | +21.4% |
...

### 2. Top 10 Best-Selling Products
1. Product A - $456,789 (15.2%)
2. Product B - $398,234 (13.3%)
...

### 3. Regional Distribution
- East: 35.2%
- South: 28.6%
- North: 18.9%
...

Step 5: Export Report

Please export the analysis report as an Excel file and export charts as PNG images

Claude will generate complete report files.

Tip: You can follow up with questions like "Why did sales suddenly increase in March?" Claude will dig deeper into the data to find possible causes.

Advanced Analysis

Data Cleaning

Please help me clean the data:
- Remove duplicate rows
- Fill missing prices (use average price of the same product)
- Remove anomalies (records with negative quantities)

Cross-Analysis

Analyze sales performance across different regions and product categories, generate a cross-tabulation table

Predictive Analysis

Based on historical data, predict sales trends for next quarter

Supported Analysis Types

Analysis Type	Example Questions
Descriptive Statistics	"What are the mean, median, and standard deviation?"
Group Statistics	"Calculate sales by region"
Time Series	"Show monthly trend changes"
Correlation Analysis	"What's the relationship between price and sales volume?"
Anomaly Detection	"Are there any unusual sales records?"
Comparative Analysis	"Compare this year's data with last year's"

Data Privacy: Cowork processes data locally, but make sure your CSV doesn't contain sensitive personal information. If needed, anonymize the data first.

FAQ

Q: How large a CSV file is supported?

A: Files up to several dozen MB are usually fine. For very large files (>100MB), you can have Claude sample the data first.

Q: What formats besides CSV are supported?

A: Excel (.xlsx, .xls), JSON, TSV, and other common data formats are supported.

Q: Can chart styles be customized?

A: Yes! For example, "Display as blue bar chart with data labels."

Real Case

"I run an e-commerce business. Analyzing sales data used to take half a day with Excel. Now I just give the CSV to Cowork and get a report with charts in 5 minutes. Amazing!" — From X user @ecommerce_seller