Location fields in CSV and TXT files

To add a CSV or TXT file from a local drive or a CSV file on the web to your map as a feature layer or to publish a local CSV file as a hosted feature layer, the file must include location fields. Location fields can contain coordinate, address, or place information. The first row in the file must contain the location field names. Addresses can be stored in one or more fields. Coordinates must be in two separate fields.

If your file has coordinate fields, Map Viewer Classic uses these fields to locate the features on the map. ArcGIS Enterprise supports the following coordinate reference systems:

• longitude, latitude*
• latitude, longitude*
• Military Grid Reference System (MGRS)
• United States National Grid (USNG)

If Map Viewer Classic cannot determine the coordinate information or if your file contains address or place information instead, you are prompted to review the location fields and change them if necessary.

The following location fields are supported:

• Latitude, Longitude
• Lat, Long
• Longitude83, Latitude83
• Longdecdeg, Latdecdeg
• Long_dd, Latdd
• Lng
• Y, X
• Ycenter, Xcenter
• Xcenter, Ycenter
• Point-y, Point-x
• Point-x, Point-y
• MGRS
• USNG
• Address
• City
• State
• ZIP

Date and time in CSV files

Date fields in CSV files are assumed to contain Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) date and time. Dates are assumed to be UTC because the physical location of the server hosting your data can be anywhere in the world. The alternative of storing date and time in a local time zone leads to all sorts of problems, especially if you, or the server hosting your data, move to another time zone.

Whenever a date field is displayed, the date is converted from UTC time into your local time. This is done by querying your computer and asking it for its time zone setting. For example, suppose your computer is set to pacific standard time (PST). PST is eight hours behind UTC—when UTC time is 10:00 AM, it is 2:00 AM PST.

When you publish a hosted feature layer from a CSV file, you can specify the time zone of the data. The specified time zone is used to mitigate the offset because ArcGIS Enterprise assumes date and time data to be in UTC. For example, when a CSV file containing date fields is published with pacific standard time selected as the time zone, all date and time values in your CSV file will have eight hours added as part of the conversion to UTC.

If the date fields in your CSV file contain a date but not a time value, a time value of midnight is assigned when you publish a hosted feature layer. Therefore, if you don't specify a time zone when you publish, your data will be stored with a time value of midnight (UTC). When you view the data, time will be converted to the local time, potentially changing the date. For example, 7/28/2009 0:00 is midnight (UTC) on July 28th, 2009. If you view the data from a computer in pacific standard time zone, the date and time will be displayed as 7/27/2009 16:00. Specifying the time zone when you publish eliminates this offset when viewed in the time zone specified.

The following dates are supported if you publish a hosted feature layer from a CSV file:

If you add a CSV file directly to Map Viewer Classic, the following date formats are loaded as dates, but times do not appear in the table in Map Viewer Classic:

If you add a CSV file directly to Map Viewer Classic, the following date formats are loaded as string fields exactly as they appear in the CSV file:

Date fields in TXT files

When you add a TXT file to Map Viewer Classic, the following date formats are recognized as date fields:

*These date formats are only supported if you delimit fields using tabs or a semicolon.

Considerations for adding CSV and TXT files to Map Viewer Classic

• The more address fields you include, the more accurate your geocoding results will be. For example, address and ZIP Code will yield better results than just address.
• The address field can contain multiple parts of an address (sometimes called single-line geocoding).
• When you add a CSV file directly to Map Viewer Classic, field types are set automatically and cannot be changed. If you need to change field types, publish your CSV file as a hosted feature layer and define the field types when you publish.
• Map Viewer Classic may not be able to create a layer from the file if the file contains more spaces than separators in the field names (the first line of the file). Remove some spaces in the field names and try adding the file again.
• Order and case does not matter (for example, you could have 519 East 86 Street, New York, NY, 10028 or new york,10028,519 east 86 street,ny). However, every row in the file must follow the same order.
• When you add a CSV or TXT file with coordinate information or addresses while signed in, 4,000 rows can be added directly to the map. CSV and TXT files with more than 4,000 rows must be published as a hosted feature layer.
• When you add a CSV or TXT file with addresses as an anonymous user or when you are not signed in, 250 features can be added directly to the map. CSV and TXT files with more addresses than this must bepublished as a hosted feature layer.
• If your data contains non-English characters, for example, characters specific to the French, Russian, Greek, Japanese, or Arabic alphabets, the file you import must be encoded as Unicode or UTF-8, and not ASCII. If you import an ASCII-encoded file containing non-English characters, it may display attribute values using unexpected characters. You can save a text file as UTF-8 or Unicode in Windows. Open the file in a text editor such as Notepad, click File > Save As, and choose UTF-8 or Unicode from the Encoding drop-down menu shown at the bottom of the Save As dialog box.
• If you are adding a CSV file from the web that includes number fields with decimals, the decimal characters in your file should match the format that your system language supports. For example, if your system is set to English, your file should use periods as decimals. If you system is set to French, your file should use commas as decimals.
• When a CSV file containing latitude and longitude information is added to a map, the latitude, longitude coordinates are converted to the spatial reference of the current basemap.
• When you can add and share a CSV file (including one with address information) as an item for others to download, the file cannot be viewed with Map Viewer Classic.

Considerations for using GPX files

• GPX files can contain multiple layers showing waypoints, tracks, and routes.
• If no symbol is specified or if the symbol isn't part of a symbol set included in Map Viewer Classic, a default waypoint symbol is used.
• You can add GPX files to Map Viewer Classic, but you cannot add them as items through the My Content tab of the content page.