2. Choose the required storage location

• Local storage - Choose a file that is stored in your computer.
  
• URL - Import a file from a URL by providing a publicly accessible direct download link.
• Cloud service - Import file stored in cloud. Select the cloud service which contains your files from the left pane. After authentication you can choose the required file.
• Paste - Allows you to paste data. Import data by pasting delimiter separated values. The four supported delimiter are comma(,), tab, semicolon(;), space, and pipe(|). Pasting of data up to 5MB is supported.
  
  
• If you are importing a large data file, while the process of importing continues in the background you can use the application or view the status of the import. Click the Access Application button in the popup box to access the live mode of the application.
  
  

• You can view the status of the import by clicking the View Import Status button.

 



Navigate to View Import Status



The Recent Imports tab will contain the status of all your imports with the number of total records imported, and both successful and failed records.


Note: The import status will only be available for 24 hours from the time of import completion.

1. Click the hamburger menu present in the top-right corner of a report and select Import.
    

2. Click the Recent Imports tab in the window that appears, to view the status of the successful and failed imports. The import status can also be tracked in the Import progress pop-up.
   


Note: Records that failed during importing can be downloaded in CSV format by clicking the download icon present near the record itself. This can be done onlywhen the number of failed records is less than 25 percent of the total records.


3. When you click on a record which contains failed imports, the reason for the failure will be captured as shown below:
   

   
   
 Note: Ensure that the data being imported complies with the default and configured validation rules, to ensure an error-free import. 

 Limitations 

• For CSV files, the file size limit is 2 GB. For all other file types, the size limit is 100 MB.

• CSV files greater than 100MB can be imported only if they are from a local file. It cannot be imported from cloud or url sources.

• If the first 3,000 records fail to import successfully, then the remaining import process will also be stopped.
  

• Choice fields like Dropdown, radio, multi-select, and checkbox won't be available for application/form creation for files more than 100 MB. 

8. Define what's to happen on import error

There is a possibility that errors may occur while importing data. So Zoho creator allows you to choose how to proceed in such instances. Under the On import error section you choose the action to be done when error occurs while the data is being imported. You can choose to either Skip the corresponding rows or Set empty value for the column.

1. Click the  Settings  button displayed near the top-left corner of the interface. The Settings pane will slide in from the right.
2. Under the On import error section two options will be displayed.
   
   • Skip Corresponding Rows  - If there is any conflict found in any of the row values, Zoho Creator will skip the corresponding rows.
   • Set Empty Values for the column  - If there is any conflict found in any of the column values, Zoho Creator will set empty(NULL) values for the corresponding columns.
   • Do not import records  - If there is any conflict found in any of the values then Zoho Creator will not import the data. This option is supported only when the number of records to be imported is less than 3000.

   

9. Set the date format

Setting the data format's paramount as this will tell Zoho Creator how to interpret the date values in your file. 

1. Click the  Settings  button displayed near the top-right corner of the interface. The Settings pane will slide in from the right.
2. Select the required value from the dropdown below Date Format.
   

   

The application has capabilities to recognize date based on locale. A date such as dd.mm.yyyy may not be recognized as date if locale is US and so on import also it will be treated as text. Henceforth, all possible date and time formats will be recognized. If date format is different across the columns then they can be refined into a common format by  Standardize Date and Time  option under  Refine data  section

10. Cleansing data

Creator offers you to cleanse the to-be imported data by offering:

• Sort data
• Filter data
• Find and replace

Sort data

Based on a column, you can sort the data in a table in the ascending or descending order. The sorting order you apply will be carried in along with the imported data. This is to let you view data in the required order. Sorting data will be help before you perform the data refining operations.

1. Click the down arrow of the required column.
2. In the drop down list select the required sorting order.
   

   

Filter data

The filter option allows you to narrow down data. Once filter is applied only the filtered data will be imported in to the to-be created imported data.

1. Click on Filter option.
   

   

2. Set the required criteria. The criteria can contain up to 20 sub-criteria. Now click Filter button.

Find and replace

The find and replace allows you to find and replace data.

1. Click on the Find and replace button
2. Enter the criteria for the find and replace operation.
   

   

11. Refine data

The refine data option allows to you the following smart data refining operations. The available options are:

• Fix Inconsistent Spellings - This enables you in identifying spelling inconsistencies and typographical errors. It'll display Clusters that are nearly similar in terms of number of characters, phonetics, and character repetition. You can modify the values in a cluster with the suggested value, or with a value of your choice.
• Fix Missing Values - This enables you in finding if a column contains empty cells, and fix them in any of the following ways:
  
  • Fill empty cells with the value present in their preceding row
  • Fill empty cells with a value of your choice
  • Fill empty cells with the most-occurring value in that column
  • Remove the rows that do not contain a value in that column
• Split Column - This enables you to split the data in a column in to two. You'll need to define what delimiter (such as whitespace, comma, or hyphen) is to be used to split the data.
• Merge Columns - This enables you to merge the data in two or more columns, in the order they are selected. Optionally, you can define if a separator (such as whitespace, comma, or hyphen) is to be added between the values or the to-be merged columns. You'll get to preview the merged value.
• Explore and Edit - This shows the frequency distribution of values in a column, which can help in deciding if the data is to be modified by  find and replace  or use Fix Inconsistent Spellings operation.
• Standardize Date and Time - This enables you to standardize the Date/Date-Time columns to a common format. With this multiple date formats can be uploaded and standardized. An option to choose the 'Pivot year' will also be available. This pivot year is helpful in the case where the year value has only two digits. In such cases the two-digit year value xx smaller than the pivot year will be expanded into 20xx, and year values larger and equal than the pivot year will be expanded into 19xx.
  

  
  

Note:


• If a column is mapped to Date/Date-time field, Standardise Date/Date-Time warning will begiven if the date format of the importing values doesn't match with the date format set for the application.
If Standardise Date warning is ignored by the user, then the date values will be automatically standardised based on the date order set in Settings. Ignoring Standardise Date will cause import errors only when the importing data has multiple date formats across the columns. Each column has to be standardised individually with an appropriate date order.