Modsak Manual - Appendix C. CSV file format

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Appendix C. CSV file format

This appendix describes the CSV file format used by the File → Export Registers and File → Import Registers menu items (see Saving and restoring register definitions ).

Files written by Export Registers follow these rules:

  • Each line of the file consists of comma-separated fields.

  • Each line contains the same number of fields.

  • Each field is enclosed in double-quotes.

  • A double-quote within a field is represented by two consecutive double-quotes. For example, the string '"Real" pressure' would be written as:


          """Real"" pressure"

  • The first line of the file is a header line containing the names of the fields:


          "Address","Name","Type","Value","Unit","Radix","Offset","Scale","Write"
              

  • Each subsequent line contains the values for a register, e.g.:


          "3049","Alarm 4","int16","0","","10","0.0","1.0","false"
          "3058","New data flag","int16","0","","10","0.0","1.0","true"
              

  • Each Type field contains "int1", "int8", "int16", "int32", "int64", "float32" or "float64".

  • Each Value field contains the register value in decimal.

  • Each Write field contains "true" or "false".

  • There are no space characters in the file, except within double-quotes when the field value is a string that contains spaces.

  • UTF-8 character encoding is used.

Import Registers is fairly tolerant of the format of the files it will read:

  • The first line of the file must be a header line containing the names of the fields.

  • The field names do not have to be in the same order that Export Registers uses.

  • The field names do not all have to be present. The only required field name is "Address"; default values will be provided for any missing fields.

  • The field names "Address", "Name", "Type", "Value", "Unit", "Radix", "Offset", "Scale" and "Write" are recognized. Unrecognized field names, and their corresponding values, are ignored.

  • Case is not significant in field names.

  • Subsequent lines in the file must contain register values corresponding to the fields named on the first line.

  • Double-quotes are only necessary around fields that contain commas or double-quotes, or that have leading or trailing spaces.

  • Blank lines and lines that start with '#' are ignored.

  • Leading and trailing space characters in fields are ignored (except within double-quotes).

  • The Unix style of escaping using backslash is accepted in fields that are not enclosed in double-quotes. For example, the field:


          Pressure\, \"Real\"
              

    would be read as 'Pressure, "Real"'.

  • Each Value field must contain the register value in decimal.

  • Default values are provided for empty fields, except for the Address field (which must contain a value).

  • UTF-8 character encoding is assumed. ASCII is accepted, since it is a subset of UTF-8.

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