CSV File Name and Structure

This topic explains CSV file name and structure considerations for importing and exporting project data in the form of a CSV file in Project Planning.

This page discusses:

See Also
Projects

File Name

The file must have the .csv suffix.

Content Structure

File content must conform to the CSV format as described in RFC-4180 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180). The file reconstitutes the table described in the RFC-4180 specification:

Lines

  • Each line of the CSV file contains a line of the table.
  • Each line must end with a line break (CRLF). The line break is optional only for the last line of the file.
  • Empty lines (multiple CRLFs) are ignored.

Cells

  • Each cell in a line is separated from adjacent cells by the comma character ( , ). The comma before the line break is optional.
  • Empty cells must contain nothing or blank/tabulation characters.
  • Empty cells must be surrounded by commas.

Content

If a cell’s value contains a double-quote ( " ) or a line break ( CRLF ) or a comma ( , ) character, it must be surrounded by double-quotes and inner double-quotes must be doubled.

For example:

Note:

Multiline content, a quoted value containing one or more line breaks (CRLF), are accepted. However, the line breaks are replaced by blanks because text fields in Project Planning do not support multiple lines.