--- title: "How to import a CSV" description: "Turn a UTF-8 CSV with longitude and latitude columns into a point layer, one feature per row. The import does not geocode addresses." sidebar: label: "Import a CSV" search: keywords: [xlsx, lat long, "lat/lon", comma separated] boost: 2 --- MangoMap turns a UTF-8 CSV into a point layer, with one feature per row, when it includes longitude and latitude columns. The import does not geocode addresses, so the CSV must contain coordinates. ## Before you start - You need an account role of `Admin` or above to import data. - The file must use UTF-8. MangoMap converts Windows-1252 files, but other encodings such as UTF-16 or ISO-8859 may cause an invalid-character error. - The file must include a longitude column and a latitude column with one of the recognised header names below. - The file must be 5 GB or smaller. ## Recognised column headers MangoMap auto-detects the geometry columns from the header row. Header matching is case-insensitive. | Coordinate | Accepted column names | | --- | --- | | Longitude | `Longitude`, `Lon`, `Long`, `Lng`, `X`, `Longtitude` (common typo) | | Latitude | `Latitude`, `Lat`, `Y` | The two coordinate columns become each point's location and are not kept as attributes. To keep them in the data table and popups, add a copy of each column with another name before you import. See [CSV coordinate columns](/docs/importing-data/concepts-importing-data#csv-coordinate-columns). Any other column becomes an attribute on the resulting point feature. ## Open the import page From the `Data` page, click `Import data`. Or, from a map, open `Manage layers` and click `Import new data` to import directly into that map. ## Pick the format In the `Data format` dropdown, select `CSV`. The `Required files` list changes to one row: `.csv`. ## Add the file Click `Upload files` and select your CSV, or drag it onto the page. Wait until the progress bar next to the file name is full and green. ## Name the dataset and save When the file is uploaded, the `Dataset name` and `Description` fields appear. MangoMap fills in the name from the file name. Change it if you want, and add a description if you want one. Import data page with Data format set to CSV, world_major_cities.csv uploaded with a full green progress bar, Dataset name World Major Cities, a Description, and the Cancel and Save buttons Click `Save`. A `Processing data…` dialog appears while MangoMap reads your file. If a column is missing, the dialog changes to `Processing failed` and shows the error message. When processing finishes, you land on the dataset page (or back on the map). Check the result. The `Type` is `POINT`, `Records` is the number of rows in your file, and the map shows one point for each row. Dataset page for World Major Cities with Type POINT, Records 1,072, and the Map tab showing the city points on a world map ## If your CSV uses a different header name MangoMap recognises specific header names — see the table above. If your file uses something else (for example, `xcoord`/`ycoord`), rename those columns to a recognised pair before uploading. The simplest fix is in a spreadsheet: open the file, edit the header row, save as CSV (UTF-8). ## If your CSV uses a different delimiter Files separated by semicolons or tabs are not recognised as CSV. Re-save the file with comma separators before uploading. In Excel, use `Save As → CSV UTF-8 (comma delimited)`. ## If your data has addresses, not coordinates The `Import data` flow does not geocode. Convert addresses to longitude/latitude in another tool first (the `Geocoding by Awesome Table` add-on for Google Sheets is a common option), then upload the result. ## Troubleshooting **"Your CSV is missing a longitude column" or "Your CSV is missing a latitude column".** Your header row doesn't contain a recognised name. Rename the column to one of the values in the table above and re-upload. See [CSV missing longitude or latitude column](/docs/importing-data/troubleshoot-csv-missing-coordinates). **"The CSV file contains invalid characters. Please save it as UTF-8 and try again."** The file is in an encoding MangoMap can't auto-convert. Re-save it as UTF-8. See [CSV contains invalid characters](/docs/importing-data/troubleshoot-csv-encoding). **"The CSV file is empty or has no header row. Please add column headers and try again."** Your file has no usable header. Add a header row as the first line and re-upload. **A column you expected to be numeric ended up as text.** MangoMap infers types from the data. A column with any non-numeric value (including ones formatted with currency symbols or commas) becomes a text column. Strip formatting from numeric columns before upload. **Storage limit reached.** Your account has run out of storage. See [Storage limit reached when importing](/docs/importing-data/troubleshoot-storage-limit). ## Related - [Supported file formats and limits](/docs/importing-data/supported-formats) - [How importing data works in MangoMap](/docs/importing-data/concepts-importing-data) - [CSV missing longitude or latitude column](/docs/importing-data/troubleshoot-csv-missing-coordinates) - [CSV contains invalid characters](/docs/importing-data/troubleshoot-csv-encoding)