How to create a table from CSV data

Video versionA video overview of CSV-based wpDataTables

Example of a CSV-based tablewpDataTables can be a WordPress CSV importer as well

The CSV, or “comma-separated-values” format is widely used; it’s simple, lightweight, almost any software can generate it, and users can even create it manually. Basically, it’s just a text file, where cells are separated with commas, rows are separated with new lines, and the first line contains table headers. CSV has been supported by wpDataTables since its first release.

You can download the file that was used to generate this table from this link. The table rendered from this file is below.

See the step-by-step tutorial below the table.

Country	Region	Grape	Size	Sweetness	Colour	Food match
Sweden	NI	Cinsaut	75CL	Semi-sweet	Gray	Vegetarian
Afghanistan	Saxony	Petit Verdot	75CL	Dry	White wine	Duck
Comoros	Goa	Mujuretuli	75CL	Dry	Rosé	Beef
Mauritania	Paraíba	Mujuretuli	1L	Sweet	Rosé	Duck
Maldives	North Island	Lagrein	1L	Very sweet	Rosé	Vegetarian
Argentina	Akwa Ibom	Aleatico	75CL	Bone dry	Gray	Fish
Croatia	Argyllshire	Aglianico	1L	Very sweet	White wine	Cheese
Isle of Man	LD	Garanoir	75CL	Sweet	Red wine	Cheese
Marshall Islands	Madhya Pradesh	Avanà	1L	Bone dry	Yellow	Vegetarian
Costa Rica	West Bengal	Gaglioppo	75CL	Sweet	Rosé	Cheese
Cyprus	South Island	Dureza	1L	Semi-sweet	Gray	Vegetarian
Portugal	Wie	Avanà	1L	Sweet	Gray	Beef
Afghanistan	Gelderland	Avanà	75CL	Semi-sweet	Yellow	Fish
Brazil	NA	Mujuretuli	75CL	Bone dry	Tawny	Fish
Venezuela	Koc	Lagrein	1L	Semi-sweet	Red wine	Cheese
Malta	Noord Brabant	Baga	75CL	Dry	Yellow	Duck
Eritrea	Zl	Manseng noir	75CL	Dry	White wine	BBQs
Guinea-Bissau	NI	Aglianico	1L	Dry	Yellow	BBQs
Sudan	GL	Mujuretuli	1L	Semi-sweet	Gray	Duck
Antarctica	Ist	Garanoir	75CL	Very sweet	Yellow	Fish
Ukraine	Kent	Avanà	1L	Semi-sweet	White wine	Cheese
Ireland	Hat	Blauburger	75CL	Semi-sweet	Gray	Duck
United States Minor Outlying Islands	North Island	Agiorgitiko	1L	Bone dry	Red wine	Fish
Brunei	HE	Aleatico	75CL	Sweet	White wine	BBQs
Korea, North	Mersin	Cinsaut	1L	Bone dry	Rosé	Fish
Slovakia	VII	Aleatico	75CL	Dry	Yellow	Cheese
Cameroon	Uttar Pradesh	Agiorgitiko	75CL	Semi-sweet	Gray	Pork
Dominica	Stockholms län	Petit Verdot	1L	Very sweet	Yellow	Beef
Faroe Islands	Queensland	Helfensteiner	75CL	Sweet	Rosé	Pork
Cayman Islands	QLD	Helfensteiner	75CL	Very sweet	Tawny	Vegetarian
Armenia	Vienna	AglianiconeAlbaranzeuli nero	75CL	Very sweet	Rosé	Beef
Iran	NB	Aragónez	75CL	Semi-sweet	Rosé	BBQs
Croatia	Andhra Pradesh	Gaglioppo	75CL	Very sweet	White wine	Pork
Antarctica	Andalucía	Agiorgitiko	75CL	Very sweet	Rosé	Pork
Switzerland	VEN	Petit Verdot	1L	Bone dry	Rosé	Cheese
Aruba	II	Garanoir	1L	Dry	Red wine	Cheese
Ukraine	NSW	Dureza	1L	Semi-sweet	Gray	Vegetarian
Puerto Rico	Leinster	Garanoir	1L	Very sweet	Gray	Fish
Chile	KC	Gaglioppo	75CL	Bone dry	Tawny	Vegetarian
Mozambique	Ankara	AglianiconeAlbaranzeuli nero	1L	Sweet	White wine	Vegetarian
Honduras	MP	Helfensteiner	75CL	Very sweet	White wine	Cheese
Saint Barthélemy	Gl	Baga	75CL	Very sweet	Tawny	Pork
Libya	AL	Manseng noir	1L	Dry	Red wine	Fish
Netherlands	U	Lagrein	1L	Very sweet	Gray	Cheese
Palestine, State of	Berlin	Agiorgitiko	1L	Very sweet	White wine	Pork
Falkland Islands	North Island	Gaglioppo	1L	Bone dry	Yellow	Cheese
Jamaica	Minas Gerais	Manseng noir	75CL	Bone dry	Tawny	Fish
Maldives	Western Australia	Petit Verdot	1L	Very sweet	Tawny	Beef
Solomon Islands	KN	Mujuretuli	1L	Semi-sweet	Red wine	BBQs
Luxembourg	Antwerpen	Baga	1L	Very sweet	Red wine	Duck
Sudan	CE	Mujuretuli	75CL	Dry	Rosé	BBQs
France	SJ	Gaglioppo	1L	Sweet	Rosé	Duck
Poland	BR	Blauburger	1L	Very sweet	Tawny	Vegetarian
South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands	Bremen	AglianiconeAlbaranzeuli nero	1L	Dry	White wine	Vegetarian
Colombia	Noord Brabant	Manseng noir	1L	Very sweet	Gray	Duck
French Southern Territories	Victoria	Agiorgitiko	75CL	Semi-sweet	Yellow	Pork
Italy	Guanacaste	Aleatico	75CL	Dry	White wine	BBQs
Israel	W	Agiorgitiko	1L	Semi-sweet	Gray	Cheese
Paraguay	RM	Lagrein	75CL	Very sweet	Tawny	Duck
Bahamas	Noord Brabant	Cinsaut	1L	Semi-sweet	Yellow	BBQs
Yemen	RM	Manseng noir	1L	Dry	Red wine	Duck
United States	KP	Aglianico	75CL	Bone dry	Yellow	Vegetarian
Mali	Comunitat Valenciana	Blauburger	75CL	Dry	Gray	Beef
Swaziland	San José	Agiorgitiko	75CL	Dry	Red wine	Pork
Haiti	HH	Blauburger	1L	Dry	Tawny	Fish
Belize	PE	Helfensteiner	1L	Semi-sweet	Yellow	Duck
Virgin Islands, British	Nevada	Helfensteiner	75CL	Very sweet	Gray	Pork
Gabon	Z.	Agiorgitiko	75CL	Dry	Red wine	BBQs
Northern Mariana Islands	IA	Aglianico	75CL	Dry	Tawny	Duck
South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands	Dolnośląskie	Agiorgitiko	1L	Semi-sweet	Red wine	Duck
Guadeloupe	Akwa Ibom	Garanoir	1L	Semi-sweet	Red wine	Duck
Macedonia	SP	AglianiconeAlbaranzeuli nero	75CL	Dry	White wine	Vegetarian
Liberia	Catalunya	Lagrein	1L	Very sweet	Yellow	Duck
Japan	QLD	Cinsaut	1L	Dry	Red wine	BBQs
Virgin Islands, United States	Gelderland	Cinsaut	75CL	Semi-sweet	Red wine	Beef
Korea, South	Berlin	Mujuretuli	1L	Semi-sweet	White wine	Cheese
Anguilla	OK	Aleatico	1L	Dry	White wine	Vegetarian
Bhutan	Mer	Helfensteiner	75CL	Dry	White wine	Cheese
Oman	Z.	Manseng noir	1L	Bone dry	White wine	Duck
Kazakhstan	DE	Dureza	75CL	Semi-sweet	Rosé	Vegetarian
Barbados	Andalucía	Manseng noir	1L	Very sweet	Yellow	Beef
Saudi Arabia	łódzkie	Agiorgitiko	1L	Very sweet	Yellow	Vegetarian
Isle of Man	KL	Avanà	1L	Dry	Rosé	Vegetarian
Guyana	L	Blauburger	1L	Very sweet	Rosé	Pork
Cook Islands	MA	Manseng noir	75CL	Dry	Red wine	Beef
Palau	Cumberland	Mujuretuli	75CL	Bone dry	Red wine	Pork
Canada	Valparaíso	Mujuretuli	75CL	Very sweet	White wine	Duck
Sao Tome and Principe	SP	Garanoir	1L	Very sweet	Tawny	BBQs
Eritrea	Zl	Garanoir	1L	Semi-sweet	Gray	Vegetarian
Eritrea	Nairnshire	Agiorgitiko	75CL	Semi-sweet	Yellow	Cheese
Croatia	Vlaams-Brabant	Aragónez	1L	Semi-sweet	Red wine	Duck
French Guiana	Stockholms län	Aragónez	1L	Sweet	White wine	Fish
Aruba	Nord-Pas-de-Calais	Petit Verdot	1L	Semi-sweet	Tawny	Vegetarian
Israel	Mississippi	Aglianico	75CL	Dry	Tawny	Pork
Jordan	NI	Avanà	75CL	Very sweet	White wine	Duck
Aruba	Stockholms län	Petit Verdot	1L	Dry	Rosé	Duck
French Southern Territories	L	Gaglioppo	75CL	Bone dry	Yellow	Vegetarian
Guyana	Manisa	Aleatico	1L	Sweet	Tawny	Vegetarian
Vanuatu	Alsace	Mujuretuli	1L	Bone dry	White wine	Fish
Indonesia	West-Vlaanderen	Lagrein	75CL	Semi-sweet	Gray	Cheese
Country	Region	Grape	Size	Sweetness	Colour	Food match

This format will work only up to a certain limit (no exact limit, but 3000-5000 cells is a good example). If you have a larger file, the page load time will increase. For large data sets it makes sense to import the data to MySQL, you can use “Create a table by importing data from data source” option to do this.

Instructions to create the table from CSV

Creating Tables in WordPress from CSV files instructions

The first thing you will need to do to create a CSV-based table in WordPress is to create the CSV file with your data set in your favorite software e.g., MS Excel, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Numbers, Google Spreadsheet, or any other.

Save the file at a location where you can easily find it later.

Create a wpDataTable and upload your CSV file

After you saved the CSV file with your data, the next step is to go to your WordPress admin and create a new wpDataTable from the CSV data source.

Please open your WordPress admin, and:

1. Go to wpDataTables -> Create a Table, and choose Create a table linked to an existing data source option.

2. Set a name for your new wpDataTable that will help you to find the table later.
3. Choose CSV file as the Input data source type.
4. Click Browse… The WordPress Media Library pop-up will appear near the Input file.

5. Upload the CSV file you prepared in the Step 1, and click the Use selected file button.
6. Click Apply, so wpDataTables will read the CSV file you uploaded, and initialize the columns metadata.

Please note that your CSV file should be on the same domain as WordPress.

(Optional) - Define additional column and table settings

At this point table is already prepared. But to improve its usability, we need to define several additional settings for the table and its columns. For this case, we define these settings:

1. Enabled Limit table width checkbox and disable Table title checkbox on “Display” tab.
2. Set the Filter type for “Country“, “Region” and “Color” columns as “Select box”.
3. Set the Filter type for “Grape” and “Sweetness” columns as “Checkbox“.

Insert the wpDataTable in your page or post

Inserting wpDataTables shortcode on page or post

When the configuration of your CSV-based wpDataTable is complete, you simply need to insert it to your post or page.

Open (or create a new) a WordPress post or page, place the cursor in the position where you want to insert your table, click the “Insert a wpDataTable” button in the MCE editor panel, and choose the CSV-based table that you prepared.

Or, if you prefer to do things manually, you can simply copy&paste the wpdatatable shortcode (you can find it in the wpDataTables browse page, or in wpDataTable edit page).