Delimiters are characters used to separate each field within your imported data file. Choosing the right delimiter is important to ensure fields are correctly interpreted from your dataset.
In this article, we go over common delimiters, delimiter options, and why delimiters are important.
Contents
Common delimiters
The following are common delimiters used to separate data:
-
Comma (
,): Commonly used for CSV files. -
Semicolon (
;): Often used in European data to avoid misinterpreting values (e.g. comma can be used as a decimal separator for price) - Tab: Used in files with separated tabs. In text, this is represented with a large space.
-
Vertical bar (
|): Common alternative when commas or semicolons appear within your data -
Tilde (
~) -
Circumflex (
^)
How Channable handles delimiters
When importing product data from a data file, you'll be prompted to select your delimiter type.
- Automatically detect: Channable will attempt to automatically identify your delimiter by analyzing the structure of your data file.
- Manually select: Choose the delimiter that exactly matches the separation character used in your data file.
Why selecting the right delimiter is important
If you choose the wrong delimiter, Channable may not be able to correctly separate your product's attributes(e.g. price, description, name).
This often results in whole rows appearing as single, unseparated fields, or being included in the wrong columns.
You can notice this immediately in the Edit mapping stage of your import, or in Items.