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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.

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Import and Visualize CSV Data in Power View


Create data visualizations based on CSV data in Excel.

You can use the built-in ODBC support in Excel to rapidly create Power View reports featuring CSV data. This article shows how to use the Data Connection Wizard, accessible from the Data ribbon, to import CSV data into a Power View report.

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.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Connect with the Data Connection Wizard

Follow the steps below to connect to the DSN from the Data Connection Wizard in Excel.

  1. On the Data tab, click From Other Sources -> From Data Connection Wizard.
  2. In the Data Connection Wizard, select the ODBC DSN option.
  3. Select the ODBC DSN for CSV from the list.

  4. Select the tables you want to work with.

    If you want to import multiple tables, deselect the "Connect to a specific table" option. After you connect to the data source, you can select multiple tables: After you click Finish to close the Data Connection Wizard, select the "Enable selection of multiple tables" option in the Select Table dialog.

  5. In the Import Data dialog, select the destination for your data. For example, select the Table option and the Existing worksheet option. Then click the cell in your worksheet where results should be output.
  6. Click Insert -> Power View to create a new Power View report.

Create a Table

Tables are the starting point for charts and other representations of your data. To create a table, select a column in the field list. You can also drag and drop table names and column names onto the view.

Create Data Visualizations

On the Design tab, you can change tables into charts and other visualizations.