The DAT filter imports and exports tabular data from delimited text files.
These file formats are assumed to have one record per line in which each record contains a fixed number of numeric data fields. The method of delimiting the fields within each record is specified through the controls in the Data Import Options and Data Export Options dialog. The comma separated value .CSV, data .DAT, and text .TXT files are used for the digital storage of data structured in a table of lists. A comma separated value .CSV file is a delimited data format that has fields/columns separated by the comma character and records/rows separated by newlines. The .TXT is a filename extension for files consisting of text usually contain very little formatting (ex: no bolding or italics). Files with the .TXT extension can easily be read or opened by any program that reads text and, for that reason, are considered universal (or platform independent).
ASCII files do not contain any worksheet formatting information such as row height, column width, or cell formatting. When ASCII files are loaded into the worksheet, the default column formatting parameters are applied to the data. This does not result in any change to data, but might result in rounding of values in the data display. There is no limitation on the number of rows or columns in an ASCII format. ASCII formats save and load slowly because there is a conversion from binary numbers to character representation.
There are some distinctions in formatting of ASCII files. Here are some brief notes that outline the usefulness of the ASCII file features.
Delimiters control the separation between cell entries in a file. Spaces, tabs, semi-colons, or commas can be used to separate cells. If cell entries contain spaces in text, the comma or semi-colon delimiters are necessary if quotes are not used to qualify the text. Otherwise, the text string would be interpreted as two cell entries rather than a single entry.
Placing Quotes Around Text - There are two types of entries in an ASCII file, values and text. Values are actual numbers, while text can be any type of character, including numbers and text characters. Single or double quotes can be placed around text strings. If a number should be interpreted as text, surround it with double quotes. When text strings contain spaces, it is recommended to use single or double quotes around text cell entries.
Using Commas or Semicolons in Addition to Quotes - Although double quotes are not required around text strings, they are useful when creating a space-delimited file that contains text. Often there are text strings that contain spaces, as in a date containing month name, day and year. With space delimited files this single entry is interpreted as more than one cell when loading this file into the worksheet. The safest way to eliminate this problem is to place double quotes around all text strings and use comma delimiting between variables.
Comma separated variable .CSV files are comma delimited with double-quotes around text strings (non-numeric or mixed alpha numeric).
When the computer's locale setting has the Decimal separator as comma, .CSV files are imported with commas as the decimal separators and semi-colons as column separators. If the CSV delimiter and the computer's locale delimiter are not the same the CSV will import incorrectly. Use the following process to correctly import the data into Voxler for use in the worksheet or project.
Open the CSV in a text editor application, such as Windows Notepad.
Press CTRL+A to select all the text in the file.
Copy the selected text to the clipboard. Press CTRL+C or use the text editor's Copy command.
In Voxler, click the File | New | Worksheet command.
Select the top-left cell in which the data should be pasted, usually A1.
Click the Edit | Paste Special command.
In the Paste Special dialog, select the Unicode Text [Clipboard] or Text [Clipboard] option, and make sure the Show Import Options box is checked.
Click OK in the Paste Special dialog.
In the Data Import Options dialog, change the selection in the Delimiters section and the Use comma as decimal symbol check box until the data are displayed correctly in the Preview section.
Click OK in the Data Import Options dialog.
Click the File | Save As command to save the reformatted data to a new data file.
Alternatively you can change the computer's locale setting to match that of the CSV file, and then open the file in a new instance of Voxler.
ASCII text files .TXT are normally tab delimited ASCII text files with no quotes around the text strings. After selecting .TXT as the format, the Data Export Options dialog is displayed.
ASCII .DAT files are ASCII files with no set format. Any delimiter or text qualifier can be set. When a file is saved in the .DAT format, the Data Export Options dialog is displayed.
File Name Extensions
.CSV, . DAT, . TXT
Format(s) Supported for Import
tabular data; double
Format(s) Supported for Export
tabular data; double
Import Method
Choose the File | Import command.
Import Options
Specify import options in the Data Import Options dialog.
Export Method
Select a data or lattice module and choose the command to save point and tabular data to an ASCII data format.
Export Options
These file formats are assumed to have one record per line in which each record contains a fixed number of numeric data fields. The method of adding delimiters to the fields within each record is specified through the controls in the Data Export Options dialog. The Data Export Options dialog allows you to specify Comma, Tab, Space, or Semicolon as the character to use to delimit fields.
See Also