Delimiters for Hierarchical and Multi-Select Fields

When importing records that contain hierarchical relationships, use a colon “:” as the field delimiter. If relationships are multi-tiered, place a colon between each record and subrecord. Place a space between each value and each delimiter.

If there is a hierarchy in a user interface dropdown list, then the CSV file requires the colon delimiter, even if a colon does not display in the UI dropdown list.

For multi-select field values, the default delimiter is a pipe “|” . You can specify a different single character to be used instead of the pipe, for an import job. Set this value on the Import Assistant's Import Options page, in the Advanced Options section. For information, see Set Advanced CSV Import Options.
If you are an administrator, you can specify a different character be used for all import jobs in the account, on the CSV Import Preferences page. For information, see Setting CSV Import Preferences.
The user-level character set as an advanced option for an import job overrides the account-level character, for that import job.
In your CSV files' multi-select fields, leave a space between each value and each delimiter.

Example Hierarchical Delimiters

In this example, Solution 1 is associated with Topic B, which is a Subtopic of A. Solution 2 is associated with Topic Z, a Subtopic of Y, which is a Subtopic of X. The colon “:” is the field delimiter. You signify the hierarchy between items using the colon in the topic column.

Solution	. . .	Topic	Is Inactive
1	. . .	A : B	FALSE
2	. . .	X : Y : Z	FALSE

Example Hierarchical Delimiters

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