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CSV Files

🟨📊 Technique Card: Working with CSV Files (practical)

Big Idea: A CSV file is a way to store data in plain text — it stands for Comma-Separated Values.
Useful for: Saving data from surveys or projects, using data in Scratch, Python, or spreadsheets.

🧠 What’s a CSV?

A CSV is just a list of data stored in a text file, where each line is a row and each comma separates columns.

Here’s what a simple CSV might look like:

Name,Travel Type
Alice,Walk
Ben,Bike
Cleo,Car
Dan,Walk

👆 Each row is like one row in a spreadsheet. The commas act like the borders between columns.

✅ Why Use CSV Files?

  • ✅ They work with lots of programs (Excel, Scratch extensions, Python, Google Sheets)
  • ✅ Easy to share and upload
  • ✅ Super simple to create by hand or from a spreadsheet
  • ✅ Great for storing survey results, project data, and changing values in code

🧪 How to Make a CSV File

✍️ Method 1: With a Text Editor (like Notepad)

  1. Open Notepad (or any plain text editor).
  2. Type your data like this:
Food,Distance (km)
Apples,120
Bananas,6000
Carrots,50
  1. Save it as:
    food_miles.csv
    🔁 Make sure it ends in .csv, and not .txt.

📊 Method 2: With Excel (or Google Sheets)

  1. Type your data into the spreadsheet like normal.
  2. Go to File → Save As (or Download).
  3. Choose CSV (Comma delimited) (.csv) as the file type.
  4. Save!

📎 Now your data is in a plain text format that other programs can understand.

💡 Top Tips

  • Don’t use commas inside your data unless you really have to (it can confuse the file!)
  • Always check the first line – it’s the header and tells what each column means.
  • You can open CSV files in Excel, Google Sheets, Python, and some Scratch extensions (like the Data Importer).

🔍 Try This!

Make a CSV with:

Name,How they get to school
Max,Walk
Tia,Bus
Alex,Bike

Open it in a spreadsheet and see the data appear in separate columns!
Then try changing the file in the text editor and reloading it.

🔗 Linked Cards

Watch the video