What is a CSV-file
CSV (from English. Comma-Separated Values - values, separated by commas) - text format, designed to represent tabular data. Row of the table corresponds to a line of text, which contains one or more fields, separated by commas (wikipedia.org).
In other words, a text file, which contains information in the form of individual lines, where each line is a separate record (for example one product). separator ( delimiter) values of columns (CSV field delimiter) It is a comma (,) or semicolon (;).
text delimiter – meaning, containing reserved characters (double quote, comma, semicolon, new line) are enclosed in double quotes (“). If the value of quotes there - they appear in the file as two consecutive quotes.
Name CSV fields – The first line of the file name usually keep CSV fields (speakers) to identify these fields (speakers).
An example of CSV-file
The original text of the CSV file, where each row is a table row:
_ID_;_NAME_;_MODEL_;_PRICE_ 28;"HTC Touch HD";"Product 1";1750.0000 29;"Palm Treo Pro";"Product 2";112.0000 30;"Canon EOS 5D";"Product 3";113.0000
Table view when opened in Apache OpenOffice Calc:
_ID_ | _NAME_ | _MODEL_ | _PRICE_ |
28 | “HTC Touch HD” | “Product 1” | 1750.0000 |
29 | “Palm Treo Pro” | “Product 2” | 112.0000 |
30 | “Canon EOS 5D” | “Product 3” | 113.0000 |
To see the contents of the CSV-file you can open in any text editor, such as Notepad ++ (How to check the format of a CSV file) or in any other test editor.
How to create a CSV file
The most convenient and fastest way to get the CSV file template of the correct format – do export of goods by expanding CSV Price Pro import / export. For this section Products (eng. Products) tab Export (eng. Export)., select the necessary fields for export on the right and export, as a result, you will get a CSV file ready for work
How to open and edit CSV-file
The first thing to do, is to download and install the Office suite Apache OpenOffice, in which structure there Apache OpenOffice Calc, spreadsheet application, allows you to work with files in CSV format.
When opening a CSV file in an application Apache OpenOffice Calc select parameters according to the settings as shown in the screenshot below:- Character set: Unicode (UTF-8)
- Separator options: Semicolon (;)
- Text delimiter: Double quote (“)
- Quote field as text – Checked
- Right click menu to select column type as Text (always Text eng. Text)

How to save a CSV file
In order to save the file in CSV format, select File > Save As.
In the window that appears, select the file type Text CSV (.csv), install “checkmark” on the contrary that appears at the bottom of the item Edit filter settings
press Save .
In the window that opens, select the option Use the current format

In the window that opens Export to a text file select:
- Character set: Unicode (UTF-8)
- Field delimiter: Semicolon (;)
- Text delimiter: Double quote (“)
- Quote all text cells – Checked

press OK to save.
How to check the format of a CSV file
CSV is a simple and common format for tabular data, this is a simple text file, which contains text without formatting and has the CSV extension (.csv) instead of the traditional TXT extension (.txt), such a file can be opened by any word processing program.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of applications for opening plain text .txt or .csv files:
- Microsoft Notepad (Windows)
- Microsoft WordPad (Windows)
- Helios TextPad (Windows)
- Notepad++ (Windows)
- Notepad2 (Windows)
- Geany (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Apple TextEdit (Mac)
- Apple Pages (iOS)
- Leafpad (Linux)
- gedit (Linux)
- KWrite (Linux)