Pitney Bowes MapInfo Professional - Manual (Page 367)

Opening Comma Delimited CSV Files in MapInfo Professional
You can open .csv files by selecting the File > Open option.
To open a comma delimited file:
1. From the File menu, click Open to display the Open dialog box.
2. In the Open dialog box, from the Files of type box, select Comma delimited CSV (.csv).
3. Navigate to the folder that contains the file you want to open and click it to select it.
4. If you wish to edit your table in MapInfo Professional, then select the Create copy in MapInfo format
for read/write check box. This makes a copy of the original file in MapInfo Professional's TAB format
and opens the copy to make edits to it.
If you do not select this check box, then MapInfo Professional opens the original CSV file and you
cannot make edits to it.
When modifying the original file, changes are not made to the copy that MapInfo Professional
opens. To see changes, you must repeat these steps to open the original file again. If you
make changes to the copy, you will not see them in the original file. Note:
5. Click Open.
6. In the Comma Delimited CSV Information dialog box, select the File Character Set for this file
from the drop-down list and then select the Use First Line for Column Titles check box if applicable.
The Delimiter option buttons in this dialog box are disabled intentionally because commas
are the only expected delimiters in this file format. Note:
7. Click OK to open the file.
The file opens in a Browser window. MapInfo Professional creates a .TAB file in the same location and
using the same name as the original .csv file.
If you did not select the Create copy in MapInfo format for read/write check box, then this .TAB file
references the .csv file and its data. If you did select this check box, then the TAB file contains the data
from the .csv file and your edits save to the TAB file.
Exporting to Comma Delimited CSV Format
When you export a table to a comma delimited (CSV) format (select Table > Export), a Comma Delimited
CSV Information dialog box displays. In this dialog box, you can select a new delimiter, choose the file
character set, and choose to use the first column in the file for column headings. When you have made
your selections, click OK.
Your column type must be set to Decimal with specified precision (number of digits in the number).
Other data formats, such as Float, cause your data to truncate and generates an error message
that displays after processing the table. Note:
• For more specific instructions on creating points, see Putting Longitude/Latitude Coordinates on a
Map in the Help System.
Displaying your dBase Data
When you convert your data to a MapInfo Professional table, you do not in any way change the original
data. MapInfo Professional simply creates a conversion table (.tab) of your data.
To open your dBase (.DBF) data into a MapInfo Professional table:
367 MapInfo Professional User Guide
Chapter 14: Putting Your Data on the Map