Guide to CSV Files

What is a CSV file?

A "CSV" file, or Comma-Separated Values file, is a common and simple type of spreadsheet. Many applications support sending and receiving data to and from CSV files due to their ubiquity and simplicity, as does ours. For more reading, see Wikipedia.

What programs can create CSV Files?

Any popular spreadsheet app should support exporting CSV files, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, etc. 

Most of the time, this feature is behind a "Save File As..." dialog where you need to manually specify this CSV file format.

How is our data validated?

When you upload a CSV file via this tool, it will first do intensive data validation to ensure your data is formatted correctly. Each column and row is individually evaluated against expected input(s). Error messages with as much data as we can provide you to help understand what went wrong will be displayed to you if your file does not pass our data verification. If no errors are found, we add/update your data!

How strict is the spreadsheet format?

We do allow for some flexibility while parsing your CSV file. The exact order and casing of your columns is not important, but the exact words must match (case insensitive). Additionally, extra columns we do not explicitly track will be ignored (though they will produce warnings). 

Please remove the description and example rows from the sample CSV, they will trigger errors. 

We also do some simple trimming of white space both before and after all cells before processing them.

What is the maximum number of households I can upload at once?

Currently, to ensure our systems do not break, and that your device can handle it, we limit CSV files to 5,000 rows per file. 

If your organization requires more, we recommend breaking them up into multiple files of that limit.

What format should the cells be for the prioritization factors?

These are all Yes/No fields, also known as boolean fields.

Are any fields optional?

Yes. A column marked `[Optional]` in the description row means cell(s) for any cells of that column can be empty, and we will treat that data as not applicable (null). 

If a column is not optional, it will give you an error during processing for empty cells.

How can I update households that I previously uploaded?

We use a combination of the specific Utility Service plus their Utility Service ID to uniquely identify households during your upload. If you previously uploaded a household with that same combination, we know you want to update that household's data