A CSV file is a text file in which the fields are separated by commas. Columns in this text file can have a common Time Stamp or a Time Stamp specific to each column.

	Configure the CSV File line.
	Guidelines for .csv file configuration.
	Common Time Stamp format for CSV File lines.
	Unique Time Stamp format for CSV File lines.

Configure the CSV File  line

CSV File lines display data from a specific CSV file.

Option	Description
LIne type	CSV File
File ID	Name of the .csv file that contains the data.
		Opens a Select a File dialog box.
Column ID	Column ID in the .csv file, up to 64 characters long
		Opens a Select a Table/Column browser.
Auto update	Check		Automatically update the line.
	Clear		Keep the same historical information as a reference.

Note: CSV File lines can always be scrolled.

Guidelines for .csv file configuration

1. Create a separate directory for your .csv files.

2. Give a .csv file used by Trends one of two formats. Choose the format, as follows:

Format	When
Common Time Stamp	All data has a common time stamp
Unique Time Stamp	Each data column has a unique time stamp

3. The time stamp column(s) should use the date and time format indicated in the International settings on your Control Panel. In the examples here, the format is mm/dd/yy hh:mm:ss.

4. Name columns using:

Either case. Columns are not case sensitive.

Up to 64 characters.

5. Enter up to 255 columns in a CSV file.

6. Allow only the same data type within each column.

Example of data type
If:	The data type of the column Float
Then:	All rows should have float values for that column.

7. Give CSV files names that fit the 8.3 format. The ODBC Text driver cannot open a file with a filename greater than 12 characters.

Example

Largest1.csv

Can be a .CSV file name.

Common Time Stamp format for CSV File lines

If all data columns in the file share a common time stamp, the file can have the following format:

"Val1", "Val2", "_time",
10.75,1,9/19/95 8:32:00
10.83,2,9/19/95 8:33:00

The first line consists of the column names enclosed in double quotes, and separated by the International settings list separator (in this case, a comma). The column that designates the time stamp must be labeled "_time". The rows following the column names are the rows of data.

CSV lines can be always be scrolled.

A CSV file is a text file in which the fields are separated by commas. Columns in this text file can have a common timestamp or a timestamp specific to each column.

Unique Time Stamp format for CSV File lines

If each data column is associated with a unique time stamp, then the file has the following format:

"Val1", "Val1_time", "Val2", "Val2_time",
10.75,9/19/95 8:32:00,1,9/19/95 8:30:10
10.83,9/19/95 8:33:00,2,9/19/95 8:30:20

The first line consists of the column names enclosed in double quotes and separated by the International settings list separator (a comma in this example). The column name which designates the time stamp associated with a data column is "_time" concatenated to the data column name (for example, "Val1_time"). The rows following the column names are the rows of data.

More information

Option 4.2. Create a New Trend Chart Line (Overview of Detailed Method).

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