CSV (Common Separated Value) Files

CSV files are text files that hold the basic data for the key (feature and entity lists and multistate and numeric score data), with one row per state, and entities and their scores separated by commas. CSV files can be opened in many spreadsheet and database programs such as Microsoft Excel and Access. If you have data in an Excel file or database, you may structure the file into a format compatible with the Lucid CSV format (see below) and export as a csv file for import into the Lucid3 Builder.

The structure of a CSV file compatible with the Lucid3 Builder can be represented as follows:

 

Entity 1

Entity 2

Entity 3 ..etc

State 1

Score

Score

Score

State 2

Score

Score

Score

State 3 ..etc

Score

Score

Score

Entities are represented using the full path name (colon-separated) of the entity in the entity tree. For example, if a key has the following entity heirarchy:

  1. Brassicaceae
  2. Brassica
  3. Brassica oleracea
  4. Brassica juncea

the entity Brassica oleracea would be represented as:

Brassicaceae:Brassica:Brassica oleracea

States are represented using the full path name (colon-separated) of the state in the feature tree. For example, if a key has the following feature hierarchy:

  1. Flowers
  2. Colour
  3. White
  4. Yellow

the state white would be represented as:

Flowers:Colour:white

For multistate features

The value of Score will be as follows:
0 - absent
1 - present
2 - rarely present
3 - uncertain
4 - present by misinterpretation
5 - rarely present by misinterpretation
6 - not scoped

For more information on the Lucid3 score values, see the topic About Lucid3 Scores

For numeric features

Numeric features are represented using the full path name (colon-separated) of the feature in the feature tree, suffixed with '#'. For example, if a key has the following feature hierarchy:

  1. Flowers
  2. Petals
  3. Length

where Length is a numeric feature, the feature Length would be represented as:

Flowers:Petals:Length#

The value of Score is a string with five colon-separated values in the format:

Score Type: Rare Low Value: Low Value: High Value: Rare High Value

For more information on numeric values, see the topic Scoring Numeric Features

Note: Numeric measurement units are not supported by the CSV format and will need to be scored manually after import.

Importing and Exporting data from Excel

If you wish to exchange data between the Lucid3 Builder and Microsoft Excel via CSV, please note the following: