> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rowbase.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# CSV Import

> Import data from CSV and other file formats

## Supported Formats

Rowbase supports importing data from:

| Format | Extensions | Notes |
| - | - | - |
| CSV | `.csv` | Comma-separated values |
| Excel | `.xlsx`, `.xls` | Spreadsheet files |
| JSON | `.json` | Array of objects |

<Info>
  Maximum file size: 10MB per file.
</Info>

## Importing CSV Files

### Via Upload

1. Navigate to your project
2. Click **Upload** or drag and drop your file
3. Review the import preview
4. Configure options
5. Click **Import**

### Import Options

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Header Row" icon="table">
    **First row is header** (default: enabled)

    When enabled, the first row is used as column names. Disable for data without headers.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Delimiter" icon="grip-lines-vertical">
    Auto-detected, but can be overridden:

    * Comma (`,`)
    * Tab (`\t`)
    * Semicolon (`;`)
    * Pipe (`|`)
    * Custom character
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Encoding" icon="code">
    Usually auto-detected. Options include:

    * UTF-8 (default)
    * UTF-16
    * ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1)
    * Windows-1252
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Quote Character" icon="quote-right">
    Character used to wrap values containing delimiters:

    * Double quote (`"`) - default
    * Single quote (`'`)
    * None
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Type Detection

Rowbase automatically detects column types by analyzing your data:

### Detection Rules

| Detected As | Example Values |
| - | - |
| Number | `42`, `3.14`, `-100`, `1,234.56` |
| Boolean | `true`, `false`, `yes`, `no`, `1`, `0` |
| Date | `2024-01-15`, `01/15/2024`, `Jan 15, 2024` |
| Text | Everything else |

### Overriding Types

If auto-detection isn't correct:

1. Click the column header in the preview
2. Select the correct type
3. Review any conversion warnings

<Tip>
  For columns with mixed types (e.g., "N/A" mixed with numbers), choose the primary type. Invalid values become `null`.
</Tip>

## Tips for Large Files

If your file exceeds 10MB:

1. **Remove unnecessary columns** before import
2. **Split into multiple files** if data is logically separable
3. **Use Excel format** which is often more compact than CSV

## Excel Import

### Importing Excel Files

1. Upload your `.xlsx` or `.xls` file
2. Select which sheet to import (or import all)
3. Configure the data range (optional)
4. Review and import

### Excel-Specific Options

* **Sheet selection** - Import one or all sheets
* **Range selection** - Specify a cell range (e.g., A1:D100)
* **Skip rows** - Ignore header rows or notes at the top
* **Skip columns** - Ignore columns on the left

<Info>
  Each sheet becomes a separate dataset when importing multiple sheets.
</Info>

## Importing New Data

Each file upload creates a new dataset. To update data:

1. Upload a new version of your file
2. Re-apply your operations to the new dataset
3. Operations can be copied between datasets

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Garbled characters" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    Try changing the encoding to UTF-8 or the encoding that matches your source.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Columns merged together" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    Check that the delimiter is correctly detected. Try specifying it manually.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Dates not recognized" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    Ensure dates are in a consistent format. ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD) works best.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Numbers shown as text" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    Remove currency symbols or thousand separators, or change the column type after import.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>