CSV File Basics
.csv stands for comma-separated values. A CSV file is a text file in which the values are separated by commas.
Google Drive (Sheets) can export a file as Comma-separated values (.csv). This is done by selecting Download As > Comma-separated values (.csv).
An Excel file can be uploaded to Google Drive. It can be downloaded as a .csv file from there.
Important Note
If the file includes any characters outside the normal ANSII character set (see examples below), then it must be correctly encoded as UTF-8. We recommend using Google Drive – see above.
Excel does not have an option to save a .csv file encoded as UTF-8. That is, it saves Unicode text.
International characters
- Accented characters, e.g. à, á, â, ã, ä, å, etc.
- Multibyte character sets, e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, etc.
- Special characters, e.g. ∞ π ∅ ≤ ≥ ≠ ≈ ∧ ∨ ∩ ∪ ∈ ∀ ∃ ∑ ∏ ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ↕ ⇒ ⇔ ∠ ∧ ∨ ∩ ∪ ∬ ∮ ∰ ∴ ∵ ∽
Note
Help topics may include features to be released.