# Advanced import settings

Your CSV data isn't importing correctly, or you're seeing format errors. The advanced settings on Step 1 of the import wizard let you tell Gym Art Meets exactly how to read your file. Here's what each setting does and when to change it.

## Date format

This controls how Gym Art Meets interprets the dates in your file. If your dates are showing up as invalid, this is almost certainly the fix.

| Format Code    | Example    | Common in                 |
| -------------- | ---------- | ------------------------- |
| **MM/dd/yyyy** | 12/25/2023 | US, Canada                |
| **dd/MM/yyyy** | 25/12/2023 | Europe, most of the world |
| **yyyy-MM-dd** | 2023-12-25 | ISO standard, databases   |
| **MM-dd-yyyy** | 12-25-2023 | US with dashes            |
| **dd-MM-yyyy** | 25-12-2023 | Europe with dashes        |
| **dd.MM.yyyy** | 25.12.2023 | Germany, Switzerland      |
| **MM.dd.yyyy** | 12.25.2023 | Less common               |
| **yyyy/MM/dd** | 2023/12/25 | Less common               |
| **yyyy.MM.dd** | 2023.12.25 | Less common               |

If your dates look like "25/12/2023" but the importer defaults to MM/dd/yyyy, every date will fail. Change the format to dd/MM/yyyy and re-import.

## Delimiter

This tells Gym Art Meets what character separates your columns.

| Delimiter     | Symbol          | When to use it                                                             |
| ------------- | --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Comma**     | ,               | Standard CSV files. This is the default.                                   |
| **Semicolon** | ;               | Common in European locales where the comma is used as a decimal separator. |
| **Tab**       | (tab character) | Tab-separated files, often from Excel exports.                             |
| **Pipe**      | \|              | Rare, but some systems use it.                                             |

If all your data ends up in one column, the delimiter is wrong. Try Tab if the file came from Excel, or Semicolon if you're in a European locale.

## Text qualifier

This tells the importer how to handle values that contain the delimiter character inside them (like a name with a comma in it).

| Qualifier        | Example             | When to use it                                                   |
| ---------------- | ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Double Quote** | "O'Connor, Patrick" | Standard. Works for most files.                                  |
| **Single Quote** | 'O'Connor, Patrick' | Uncommon, but some systems use it.                               |
| **None**         | O'Connor Patrick    | Only if your data has no commas or special characters in values. |

## Encoding

This controls how special characters (accents, umlauts, non-English letters) are read.

| Encoding         | When to use it                                                                   |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **UTF-8**        | The safe default. Handles all international characters. Use this first.          |
| **ASCII**        | Only works for basic English characters. Rarely what you want.                   |
| **ISO-8859-1**   | Western European characters. Try this if UTF-8 produces garbled text.            |
| **Windows-1252** | Files created on older Windows systems. Similar to ISO-8859-1 with a few extras. |

If you see garbled names like "JosA(c)" instead of "Jose", change the encoding. Start with UTF-8, then try ISO-8859-1.

## Start row

This tells the importer which row has your column headers.

| Start Row | When to use it                                        |
| --------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| **1**     | Standard files where row 1 is the header.             |
| **2**     | Files with a title or summary row before the headers. |
| **3+**    | Files with multiple rows before the actual headers.   |

If the importer is treating your data rows as headers (or your headers as data), adjust this number.

## End of line

This handles the difference between how Windows and Unix systems end each line in a text file.

| EOL Type | Symbol | When to use it     |
| -------- | ------ | ------------------ |
| **LF**   | \n     | Unix, Linux, macOS |
| **CRLF** | \r\n   | Windows            |

Usually you don't need to change this. The importer auto-detects it. If you're seeing rows that don't split correctly, try switching between the two.

## Quick troubleshooting

| What you see                 | What to change |
| ---------------------------- | -------------- |
| Dates are invalid            | Date format    |
| All data in one column       | Delimiter      |
| Garbled special characters   | Encoding       |
| Headers are wrong or missing | Start row      |
| Names with commas get split  | Text qualifier |
| Rows don't separate          | End of line    |

## What's next

* [Fix CSV import errors](https://docs.gymart.org/club-management/fix-csv-import-errors) - Row-level error fixes on Step 2
* [CSV template and format](https://docs.gymart.org/club-management/csv-template-and-format) - Column specifications

## Related

* [Import gymnasts via CSV](https://docs.gymart.org/club-management/import-gymnasts-csv)
* [Club management overview](https://docs.gymart.org/club-management/index)