Figure 1.4 Select a File Format.

There are two kinds of file that you can choose from to import. The first is delimited. This basically means that each column has a character between itself and the next to differentiate between them. The second is Fixed Width. The way a fixed width file works is that columns stop and start based on a number of spaces. Although our text file is delimited we'll have a quick look at a fixed width file to explain this a little better in Figure 1-5. Here's where we choose the file type

Figure 1.5 Fixed Width Format.

As you can see there are lines running through the data and you can move these to the positions that your columns stop and start. These define the boundaries of your data.

Moving back to to Figure 1-4 let's explain a couple of the options/choices that we have on this screen.

1. Row Delimiter: What delimits your rows of data? Most files will use {CR}{LF}

2. Skip Rows: Skip the first n rows of data

3. First Row has Column Names: Useful for when the first row in your data is the column names

4. The pane at the bottom: Previews your Data File's data

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