Files Types and Data Format

The shared platform data files discussed in this chapter may use a standard comma-delimited (CSV) file format, with text strings optionally enclosed by quotation marks or other characters. The files expect the first line to be column headers, and lines 2+ should contain the input data. This applies to any filename ending in .csv. For specific columns in each of these files, the following standards can be used as a guideline (though they can be changed by configuration options).

Table 7-1 Foundation File Formatting

Datatype	Format	Example	Explanation
Number	0.00	340911.10	Numbers should be unformatted with periods for decimal places. Commas or other symbols should not be used within the numerical values.
Character	“abc”	“Item #4561”	Any alphanumeric string can be optionally enclosed by quotation marks to encapsulate special characters such as commas in a descriptive value.
Date	YYYYMMDD	20201231	Dates should be provided as simple 8-digit values with no formatting in year-month-day sequences.