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CSV/TSV Files Icon CSV ODBC Driver

The CSV ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live flat-file delimited data (CSV/TSV files), directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access flat-file data like you would any standard database - read, write, and update etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

Use the CData ODBC Driver for CSV in Microsoft Power Query



You can use the CData CSV ODBC Driver with Microsoft Power Query. In this article, you will use the ODBC driver to import CSV data into Microsoft Power Query.

The CData ODBC Driver for CSV enables you to link to CSV data in Microsoft Power Query, ensuring that you see any updates. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to import CSV data into Microsoft Power Query.

Connect to CSV as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

The DataSource property must be set to a valid local folder name.

Also, specify the IncludeFiles property to work with text files having extensions that differ from .csv, .tab, or .txt. Specify multiple file extensions in a comma-separated list. You can also set Extended Properties compatible with the Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0 driver. Alternatively, you can provide the format of text files in a Schema.ini file.

Set UseRowNumbers to true if you are deleting or updating in CSV. This will create a new column with the name RowNumber which will be used as key for that table.

Import CSV Data

Follow the steps below to import CSV data using standard SQL:

  1. From the ribbon in Excel, click Power Query -> From Other Data Sources -> From ODBC.

  2. Enter the ODBC connection string. Below is a connection string using the default DSN created when you install the driver: Provider=MSDASQL.1;Persist Security Info=False;DSN=CData CSV Source
  3. Enter the SELECT statement to import data with. For example:

    SELECT City, SUM(TotalDue) FROM Customer GROUP BY City
  4. Enter credentials, if required, and click Connect. The results of the query are displayed in the Query Editor Preview. You can combine queries from other data sources or refine the data with Power Query formulas. To load the query to the worksheet, click the Close and Load button.