How to build a CSV file?

Did you encounter any problems when importing your CSV file? Or perhaps you’d like some advice on the format to use? Please follow the recommendations below.

A CSV (“comma separated values”) file is a simple text file where each value is separated by commas, allowing data to be saved in a table format. You can use a CSV to upload your contact lists and properties (name, phone, address, etc). And you can easily create a CSV file using your favorite text editor (Word, Notepad, …) or spreadsheet program (Excel, Google Sheets, …) by doing a “Save As” or “Export”.

Use a CSV file* to upload your contact lists and properties (name, phone, address, etc) to your contact list. For example:

Email, First Name, Last Name, Age
[email protected], Simon, Wong, 32
[email protected], Sam, Brown, 29

Download the sample file click here

* Please note: the size of your CSV file cannot exceed 20MB.

Although there is no standard structure for CSV files, there are similar rules used by many software applications and systems that need to be followed or you may experience an error when importing your CSV file:

Each row has the same number of data values (fields)

• The header row, if present, must match the number of fields on a row

• If a value in your CSV file contains commas, it must be enclosed by double quotes (“ “). This will separate your commas from the commas that are used to delimit the fields themselves. For example, double quotes were added to the Note field values:

Email, First Name, Last Name, Age, Note
[email protected], Simon, Wong, 32, “Spoke on Monday, she is interested”
[email protected], Sam, Brown, 29 “Spoke on Friday, he is not interested”

Ensure there are no blank lines in the CSV file

• Empty fields need to be separated by commas. For example: If no last name was given, that empty space (highlighted in yellow below) needs to be separated by a comma:
Email, First Name, Last Name, Age
[email protected], Julie,   , 52

• Remove unnecessary spaces at the beginning or end of each field:

✗   [email protected],   Liam,   35, …
✗   [email protected], Liam   , 35   , …
✓   [email protected], Liam, 35, …

• Make sure your email addresses are valid.

Please note: It is recommended to UTF-8 encode your CSV file, especially if it contains special characters (å, é, î, ü, …). There are several ways to create a valid UTF-8 CSV file: