Import Text (Bulk)

On the File tab, in the Import group: Select Text (Bulk) to import multiple space, comma or tab delimited text files.

Specify the following inputs on the Bulk Import Text form:

Input

In the Input group, navigate to the folder location of the input files and choose how those files will be parsed by the Import process.

Path

Click the Path icon (double-click or F3) to navigate to the folder location of the files you want to import. The files that are listed will depend on the chosen file extension (see below).

File Extension

Accept the default file extension [.csv] or choose a different file extension.

Delimiter

Delimiters are ASCII characters used to separate one text field from the next. Specify the Delimiter for the files by selecting a (Comma, Tab, Space, Custom) option from the drop-down list. The option you choose should match the delimiters in the Input files.

If you chose the Custom Delimiter option, specify a delimiter character in the field provided.

Notes: When the field delimiter is a space character, multiple consecutive space characters count as a single delimiter. For any other field delimiter (e.g. tab or comma), multiple consecutive delimiter characters count as multiple delimiters.

When the field delimiter is a tab any combination of space and carriage return characters at the start and end of a field are stripped away. For any other field delimiter (e.g. space or comma) any combination of space, tab and carriage return characters at the start and end of a field are stripped away.

Text Qualifier

When one or more of the fields to be imported could potentially contain the specified (comma, space or custom) delimiter character, a Text Qualifier can be used at the start and end of those fields (typically double or single quotes) to denote that the delimiter character is meant to be included as part of the field.

Decimal separator

The separator that is used to denote decimal values may vary depending on locale. A decimal point is the default. If necessary, specify an alternative separator.

Encoding

The default encoding for the input text filesis ANSI (Windows). Alternatively, use the Encoding drop-down menu to select a file encoding for the files.

Define Null Value

If required, enter a value in the Define Null Value field representing NULL in the file. Note that this is a string value (for example a null value of -999 will not match -999.0 in the file).

Import Empty Records

Select the Import empty records check box option to import files which contain empty (yet valid) records. Empty records in a file will be ignored when this option is not selected.

Import Numbers As

Choose whether to prefer numbers are imported as Binary or Numeric values.

Determine Output Structure

Choose how scanning will be used to determine the structure of the Output file:

• Select Scan complete input file to scan each entire file rather than scan a subset of the rows in each file.

• Select Scan rows to scan the number of rows in the input box provided.

Output

Select a destination for the Output files:

• Select Project Folder to choose the current project folder as the destination.

• Select Path to specify a different folder destination.

File Exists Options

Select an option to determine what to do with the imported text files when a matching data row exists:

• Append All - This option will append the name of the unique identifier for the row and keep the original match.

• Overwrite All - This option will overwrite any matching row with the new data.

• Prompt for each file - This option will provide a prompt from which you can select to append or overwrite for each match.

Note: For more advanced options, for example, to determine the location of field and unit definitions in the Input file and map those units to the corresponding fields in the Output file, see: Import Import Text