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Data entry validation in spreadsheets

You’re starting a new study of small mammals at the NEON site at Ordway-Swisher. Create a spreadsheet in Excel for data entry. It should have four columns: Year, Site, Species, and Mass.

Set the following data validation criteria to prevent any obviously wrong data from getting entered:

1. Year must be an integer between 2015 and 2025.
2. Site should be one of the following A1, A2, B1, B2.
3. Species should be one of the following Dipodomys spectabilis, Dipodomys ordii, Dipodomys merriami.
4. Mass should be a decimal greater than or equal to zero but less than or equal to 500 since mass is measured in grams in this study and nothing bigger than half a kilogram will possibly fit into your Sherman traps. Change the error message on this validation criteria to explain why data is invalid and what the valid values are.

Save this file as yourname_ordway_mammal_data.xlsx.