import cars from csv file

[Dave Taverner]

I have an iDatabase file with my cars listed in that file. I can export it as a csv file but when I try to import into switchlist is says 0 cars imported. I tried to make just a database with one field and it still would not import that file. I even went in and edited the file with textedit exactly as it shows in the help section and it still did not work. Any help?

[Robert Bowdidge]

Hi, Dave,

Send me a copy of your file, and I'll check it out.

Robert

> On Apr 1, 2018, at 10:10 AM, Dave Taverner <nkpl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have an iDatabase file with my cars listed in that file. I can export it as a csv file but when I try to import into switchlist is says 0 cars imported. I tried to make just a database with one field and it still would not import that file. I even went in and edited the file with textedit exactly as it shows in the help section and it still did not work. Any help?
>

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[Dave Taverner]

I m attaching two files. The first had more fields so I thought maybe that was the problem. The second file is the one with only one data field and it also would not import to switchlist. Thanks for the help.

Dave

[Robert Bowdidge]

Hi, Dave,

Here's a version of your import file that will work.

iDatabase creates the CSV file with special characters that SwitchList's importer doesn't understand. It'll take some programming to get SwitchList to handle those files; I'll put it on the to-do list.

The specific problem is that iDatabase dumps out its data in Unicode text format (specifically UTF-16). Unicode's good because it allows you to use all sorts of different alphabets and symbols (Cyrillic alphabets, or special symbols for French). However, SwitchList doesn't know anything about UTF-16 and can't read it. (Specifically, Unicode uses two characters for each letter, adds extra zeros here and there, and does lots of other things so you can write text in Klingon and be able to read it on other computers.).

One quick fix: there's websites that will magically do the conversion from UTF-16 to plain text ("ASCII") for you, like this website:

https://www.browserling.com/tools/utf16-decode

Open your CSV file in TextEdit, copy the entire file's text, paste it into the box on that website, and press "UTF Decode!" The contents doesn't look they've changed, but it's been converted to plain text. Now, copy the plain text out of the box on the website, paste it into a new TextEdit document, save that, and it should import into SwitchList.

If iDatabase gives you a choice of ways to export your CSV file, you can also choose "UTF-8" or "ASCII" and you'll get a file that should work as-is.

Robert

[Dave Taverner]

Great! Thanks for the help. I will give that a try. I have been trying to get Switchlist to work for my layout so I am still learning how to use it. 

[Dave Taverner]

ok, after some trials and testing I figured out a work around to import the file from iDatabase. I renamed some of my fields to match the fields in Switchlist. I then made a copy of the database file and in the copy I deleted the excess fields that are not used in Switchlist. I was then able to export the database, (there was an option to save it as ASCII file and also leave off the field names). When I imported that into Switchlist the cars were all there and correct. Since I had just started this database it will be simple to work with it as my main file and then use them in Switchlist. Thanks for your help. I deleted the other posts when I was trying to figure it out so not to confuse the situation. 

Dave