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# How to create a valid CSV file

||| Are you experiencing problems when uploading a CSV file to Platform.ly? Please follow the recommendations below to make sure your CSV file is correctly formatted.

### A quick intro to the CSV file

> A CSV (short for Comma Separated Values) file is a text file where values are separated by commas, which allows data to be saved in a table format. In Platformly, you can use a CSV file to import your contact lists. You can generate a CSV file using your favorite text editor, like Microsoft Word or Notepad, or spreadsheet program, like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, by clicking on "Export" or "Save As".

### CSV Examples:

"First Name", "Last Name", "Email Address", "Age"
"John", "Brown", "john@example.com", "22"
"Peter", "Parker", "peter@example.com", "56"
"Steve", "Wilson", "steve@example.com", "43" 

|| [Download as a CSV file](https://www.platform.ly/material/csv1-example.csv)

First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Age
John, Brown, john@example.com, 22
Peter, Parker, peter@example.com, 56
Steve, Wilson, steve@example.com, 43 

|| [Download as a CSV file](https://www.platform.ly/material/csv2-example.csv)

__Most of the systems and applications follow specific rules that you should follow:__

* Every line has the same number of values (fields) and sometimes the values are enclosed with quotation marks ("")

* Empty fields must be separated by commas and/or quotation marks

**For example:** If a Last Name field is empty, that empty space must be separated by commas:

First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Age
John, , john@example.com, 22

**Or** if your values are enclosed by quotation marks, the empty space needs to be enclosed by quotation marks as well:

"First Name", "Last Name", "Email", "Age"
"John", "", "john@example.com", "22"

* Blank lines are not allowed in a CSV file, so you need to make sure they are removed

* Fields should be without unnecessary spaces at the beginning and end of each field

* Make sure email addresses are valid

Otherwise, when you import your contacts, you might end up with a lot of invalid email addresses, which will hurt your deliverability, as well as your reputation. The sooner you detect invalid email addresses, the better.

### Make sure your special characters are UTF-8 encoded!

Does your data maybe contain special characters (£, €, ¥, å, é, è, î, ñ, ü...)? 

**For example: **

  Zoë, Johnson, zoe@example.com, 48 
  Hervé, Blanc, herve@example.com, 33
  Garbiñe Lopez, garbine@example.com, 30

Before you can upload your contacs, your CSV file must be encoded to UTF-8 to handle these special characters. Here are a few different ways to create a valid UTF-8 CSV file: 

* Google Docs
Upload your file to Google Docs and then simply download it:
 
File → Download as → Comma Separated Values

The downloaded CSV file will be saved with UTF-8 formatting.

* Notepad (Windows)
This text editor allows you to save UTF-8 encoded text files.

* Text Wrangler (Mac)
Simply open your CSV file in Text Wrangler and save it with UTF-8 formatting.

|| If your CSV file is still not accepted by Platformly, our friendly Support Team will be happy to assist you -- just send us a message with your CSV file attached.