Simplifying Database Management: How to Import and Export CSV Files on Xata Database.
Tags: database, webdev, xata, xatadatabase
Published: 2023-09-12 13:55:38

## Introduction.

“In an ever-evolving world of information distribution, and sharing, database management is fast becoming an integral part of every facet of human existence, at any point in time, if you are not looking for information, you'd be sending information to your others”.  Efficient database management is an important aspect of every human endeavor and even business, while this is becoming more difficult, [Xata](http://xata.io) serverless database is providing solutions to make it simpler and more seamless, importing and exporting csv files is one of the innovations that will make your database management a simplified one and allow you to work with several file formats in your database.

In this blog post, we will explore importing and exporting csv files using xata database, with a covid-19 dataset.

### What is Xata Database?

Xata Database is a serverless database management service that allows you to maintain an abstract data infrastructure for your project, meaning that with Xata Database, you do not need to worry about setting up an infrastructure at any extra cost.

Xata provides a wide range of Database management service by hosting your database somewhere you do not have to know. All you need to communicate with your Database on Xata are different API endpoints that allow you to create, read, update, and delete data from your hosted database.

Xata also provides an easy-to-navigate UI that makes it easier than what other Database services provide for development and production purposes.

Xata offers two ways of data aggregation, which are:

- Aggregations that are executed in Elasticsearch, and
- summaries that are executed in PostgreSQL.

### Formatting CSV files for smooth import and export on Xata.

To ensure a seamless import and export of data on Xata Database, you should ensure that your CSV files are well formatted and structured into machine-readable formats, a well-structured CSV file will remove errors while working with the data and also remove redundancy of data sections. Format your CSV by ensuring that you do the following:

- Ensure a UTF-8 encoding in your file.
- Do not leave blank rows in your CSV file.
- Make sure that your CSV file conforms to the database format.
- Make sure that there is similarity in every row of the data.
- Ensure that all lines in your CSV file use the same eliminators.
- Make sure all text fields are in quotes.
- Use a unique identifier for each record.

 Once you have a well-formatted data, the next step is to import your data into Xata, to do this, you need a Xata user account, Xata is free for almost any usage, if you need more advanced usage for your project please visit the [billing](https://xata.io/pricing) page to learn about Xata pricing.

After setting up your account, follow the steps below and get your data into Xata ASAP.

1. Log in to your account and add a new workspace if you don't have one yet, if you already have a workspace, go ahead and create a new database, or you can use an existing database.
In this blog post, we created a new database named `covid-19_vaccination_database`as seen below.
![xata-admin](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/uau34i2wk2x86axdrpsq.png)
Xata provides a versioning experience that allows you work in different branches if you so wish, with this, you can have a safe working experience with Xata, choose any branch you wish to follow this tutorial with.
2. Click on the add a table button on the left menu bar on the page and select import CSV file from the drop-down menu, alternatively you can select the import CSV file button on the `get started` page as shown below.
![xata-import](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3pec87xh8uz2db0fawkt.png)
3. Select Browse `Destkop` to select your desired file from your saved files.
![data-file](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/md6zt56b95g5s6otyk6j.jpg)
4. Once your file upload is complete and you are ready to go live, click on `begin import`, and your CSV file import will begin. If there are no errors, you will get a success page and your CSV file shown in your Xata database successfully.
![data-upload](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y1dasmg1tu1po1jupk5j.jpg)
And that's a wrap on CSV file import on Xata Database. What is an import without a corresponding export?

In the next section, We will go through the steps required to export a CSV file from Xata.

Xata allows you to do a lot with your data on the web UI and even through communications with the API endpoints, you can decide to do any kind of modification you like to your data, after all modifications, let's export our data as new CSV file that can be used somewhere else as deemed fit.

To export your data  as a CSV file, simply follow the following steps. 

1. Click on the `Actions` button at the top middle corner of the page, and select how you want to export your CSV file, for this blog post, let us export the current view only.
![export](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dymmgjj33pcy0gt96hik.png)
2. After a successful export, you can view your new CSV file in your selected storage folder. On opening the modified and exported CSV file, you will get all modifications applied as seen in our file, in this file, we deleted some columns, and they're all removed as seen below.
![exported](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/kstw5xo3z5f6pqn0si4s.jpg)

### Data Cleaning and Transformation during import and export.
Data cleaning is an essential part of database management, as such, it is imperative to identify and clean duplicate and inconsistent data from your CSV file during import.

You should also also make sure to define mapping rules between your CSV file and the Xata UI, this makes sure that you are actually working in par with your database.

## Conclusion.

Managing database involves dealing with files of different formats, and with the limitations of other databases, Xata database has made it easy to import and export CSV files into your database, this makes it flexible to work with your CSV files in Xata. for more details and explanations, check the official Xata documentation [here](https://xata.io/blog/csv-import-export).

We have been able to import, edit, and export our CSV file in this blog post, go ahead and build great products while flexible with your database.