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CSVImportGuideFINALV1.12018-03-01

ThisshortguidedemonstrateshowtoprepareandopenaCSVdatafileusingaspreadsheetapplicationsuchasExcel.

Itdoesnotcoverallpossiblewaystoopenfiles.Itisintendedtodrawattentiontoproblemsthatcanbeavoidedwhenworkingwithdatafilesinthisformat.

CSVImportGuide

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Pleasenote:

GLEIFdoesnotprovidetoolsupport,sowearenotabletogivedetailedadviceonyourorganization’sparticularsystemsorworkflows.Theexampleshereareforillustrationandyoumayneedtoadapttoyourlocaloperatingsystemand/orapplication.WerecommendconsultingyourITteamforanycomplextasks.

1. Downloadfile

FirstdownloadthefilefromtheGLEIF.orgwebsite.

Right-clickonthefileandselect“SaveAs…”tosavethefilelocally(pleasedonotopenityet).

Thedatafilehasthefilenameextension“.csv”.

Donotdoubleclickthedatafileimmediately.

2. OpenExcel

Oncethedatafilehasbeendownloaded,donotdirectlyopenit.

§ Instead,findyourspreadsheetapplication(e.g.Excel)andopenit.§ Createanew(blank)workbook:

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WithsomeversionsofExcelyoumayneedtodothisfromamenu,suchas:

3. Setupimport

Onceanewworkbookisopen,selectthisoptionfromtheFilemenu:

Import…

Adialogwillnowbegin,guidingyouthroughthestepsofimportingafile.

Youneedtorepeatthestepsinsections2untiltheend,foreachfileyouwishtouse.

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4. Importdialog

4.1. Selectfiletype

1. SelectCSV.2. ClickImport.

4.2. Selectdata(file)formats

Thenextstepmaybedifferent,dependingontheoperatingsystem,application,andeventheversionofExcel.

Iftheapplicationsetsanyofthefollowingvaluescorrectly,pleasedonotchangethem:

§ ThedatamustberecognizedasDelimited.§ Theimportmuststartatrow:1.§ Themostimportantsettingmaynotyetbedetected:

Unicode(UTF–8)

Pleaseseethenextpageforanexample.

MakesurethatallsettingsthatofferUnicodeand/orUTF–8aresettothisvalueonly.

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DonotclickFinish.InsteadalwaysclickNextuntilthefinalstepiscomplete.

4.3. Setdelimitersandqualifiers

TheCSVfilecontainstwotypesofspecialformattingcharactersthattellyourapplicationwheretosplitthetextintocolumnsandrows:

§ Thedelimitersarecommas(,).§ Thequalifiersaredoublequotationmarks(“).

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Ifyourapplicationdetectstheseautomaticallypleasedonotchangethevalues;simplyclickNext.

Ifanyadditionalvalues(e.g.“Tab”)areselected,pleasede-selectthem.

OnlyComma(,)forDelimitersanddoublequotationmarks(“)forTextqualifierarecorrect.

4.4. Setdata(content)format

ThefinalstepistosetdatacontentformatsthatareusedbyExceltodisplayandinsomecases,process,thedata.

ThisisessentialforfilescontainingLEIs.

§ SettheLEIcolumntoTextasshowninthenextscreenshot.§ The“General”typecancauseproblemswithsomelongsequencesofnumbers.

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§

OnlyclickFinishwhenallofthestepshavebeenchecked.

Pleasenote:

§ Whenworkingwithverylargefiles,downloading,openingandmanipulatingthefilemaybeinterruptedsometimesduetoe.g.lackofsufficientmemory.

§ Forlargefilesthiscouldbeimpracticalandaspecializedtoole.g.adedicatedCSVeditororparser,isneeded.

§ Fordetailedtechnicalassistanceusingyourapplication,pleaseconsulttheofficialapplicationdocumentation.Forexample,detailedinformationonimportingCSVfilestoMicrosoftExcelcanbefoundat:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba