User Manual

Appendix C - How to use CSV Files

Building Technologies A6V10062407_a_en

Fire Safety & Security Products 30.06.2013

Appendix C - How to use CSV Files

The CSV (Comma Separated Values) files are best viewed within applications that

allow manipulating data that is in columnar format. Common examples of such

applications are those that are used to create spreadsheets and databases.

If you do not have access to either a spreadsheet or a database application, you can

also retrieve the data table file into a word-processing application. However, since this

application type does not have the facility to easily format the width of the data

columns, quite a bit of manual reformatting will be required to properly view the data.

Opening a CSV file into a Spreadsheet Application

To retrieve the data table into a spreadsheet application, proceed with the steps that

you normally go through to open an existing spreadsheet. You may encounter two

types of problems:

 The CSV file is a text file (it has a TXT extension) and it is not recognised as a data

table by the spreadsheet application. In this case, just rename the file extension to

CSV and open it again.

 The

list separator character

- which is a Windows setting in Start > Control Panel >

Regional Options > Numbers > List Separators – does not match the separator

used in the CSV files (in spite of the name, the value separator can be a comma or

another character, such as a semicolon or a space). You can then modify the

Windows setting so the separators match.

Importing a CSV file into a Database Application

To import the data table into a database, create a new table and then import the data

table file into the newly created database table.

Note: Because the data table is formatted as a CSV Text Document, you may be

prompted to set the file import options, which will ensure that the data is properly

formatted when the file is retrieved into the spreadsheet or imported into the database

table. The key file import options and their associated values are listed in the following

table.

Import Option Value

Data Type Comma Delimited

File Origin Windows ANSI

Text Qualifier None

Field Delimiter ; (Semicolon)

First Row Field Names

Retrieving the CSV file into a Word-Processing Application

To retrieve the data table into a word-processing application, proceed with the steps

that you normally go through to open a text file or document.

Since the data columns are delimited with a specific character, you can search and

replace all instances of this character with a Tab command. This will automatically

align the columns for easier reading.