Making a CSV file readable

Background

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This article explains how data in an exported CSV file can be made readable in Excel.

See this article for a guide on how to export data from a sensor in CSV format.

Making a CSV file readable

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After you have downloaded a CSV file from the web app, it can be opened with Excel. The format of the file is not formatted for readability by default. Some settings need to be adjusted to get an overview of the data. Follow this guide to make these adjustments.

1. Locate your CSV file and open it with Excel. When first opened, the file will look like this:

2. Mark column A (1) and enter the Data tab in the top menu (Alt + A):

3. Select “Text to Columns”. This will open a pop-up modal:

4. Select “Delimited” and click “Next”. “Delimited” means that the columns in the file are separated by a specific character – a delimiter – such as a comma or a semicolon. Which delimiter your file uses depends on the choice you made when exporting. Read more in Delimiter & number format.

5. Mark the delimiter your file uses, and click “Next”:
   • If you exported with Semicolon, comma decimal: mark “Semicolon”.
   • If you exported with Comma, dot decimal: mark “Comma” (as in the example below).

6. Click on “Advanced”:

7. Set “Decimal separator” to match your file, and click “OK”:

   • Semicolon, comma decimal: decimal separator " , " (comma).
   • Comma, dot decimal: decimal separator " . " (dot) (as in the example below).

   The file contains no thousands separators, so “Thousands separator” just needs to be a different character than the decimal separator.

8. Click “Finish”.

The sheet has now been formatted for better readability and will look like this: