Comma-Separated Values (CSV)

CSV files are used in the system from multiple point of views. The system reads CSV files and infers on of the following separators: comma ,, semicolon ;, space , or tabulator \t.

The system creates CSV files for simulation. Below is a description for both use cases.

How to assign agent attribute values with data from a CSV file?

In the simulation configuration file (see this article for more information), an agent initialization file can be specified for each agent type. The file needs to contain a header row with attribute names (note: these names must match the attribute names in the corresponding agent type class). Each subsequent row is used to assign values to one agent's attributes. If the CSV file contains fewer rows than the number of agents instantiated at the beginning of the simulation, then the initialization file will loop back to the first row until all agents' attributes have values.

Here is an example of an agent initialization file:

gender	length	age	worker	partTimeWorker	averageSpeed	speed	position	height	width	mass
1	0.22	29	True	False	True	0		1.7	0.46	65
0	0.22	26	True	True	True	0		1.72	0.46	75.35
1	0.22	33	True	False	True	0		1.71	0.46	66.94
1	0.22	49	True	True	True	0		1.71	0.46	62.51
1	0.22	55	True	False	True	0		1.72	0.46	71.06
1	0.22	19	True	True	True	0		1.71	0.46	69.06
1	0.23	27	True	False	True	0		1.75	0.47	62.04
0	0.22	29	True	False	True	0		1.72	0.46	89
0	0.22	28	True	False	True	0		1.72	0.46	94.97
1	0.22	50	True	False	True	0		1.7	0.46	71.41

Columns are mapped automatically to the input attributes of the agent when using the AgentManager. More about spawning can be found here.

How to store simulation output data in a CSV file?

Simulation output data can be stored in a CSV file. For more information on this and on how to store data in a database, please click here.

Here is an example of a simulation output file:

Tick	Step	DateTime	Acceleration	ActiveCapability	ActualTravelTime	Bearing	CurrentlyCarDriving	DistanceStartGoal	ExpectedTravelTime	Gender	GoalX	GoalY
365	365	2020-01-01T00:06:05	0	Walking	363	69.97634115090324	False	539.1496372361638	362	Female	9.9507224	53.5449285
4856	4856	2020-01-01T01:20:56	0	Walking	417	0	False	447.5835438681768	418	Male	9.9503878	53.5444032
6359	6359	2020-01-01T01:45:59	0	Walking	539	246.87714679703578	False	796.4590189678215	482	Male	9.9443762	53.5506118
6798	6798	2020-01-01T01:53:18	0	Walking	298	0	False	715.490939532274	331	Female	9.9430225	53.5518429
7506	7506	2020-01-01T02:05:06	0	Walking	84	0	False	63.42180081824236	85	Male	9.9427109	53.5518512
7748	7748	2020-01-01T02:09:08	0	Walking	208	0	False	227.9140326289338	209	Female	9.9454153	53.5468596
7826	7826	2020-01-01T02:10:26	0	CarDriving	208	0	False	497.89803147717004	206	Male	9.9479601	53.5535065
11152	11152	2020-01-01T03:05:52	0	Walking	578	356.9962451289335	False	254.03827739817234	595	Male	9.9376733	53.5440066
11644	11644	2020-01-01T03:14:04	0	Walking	6	135.22416886964015	False	5.3213083928973735	7	Male	9.9517046	53.5605164
11743	11743	2020-01-01T03:15:43	0	Walking	12	0	False	15.266971536423336	13	Female	9.9438129	53.5508932
12216	12216	2020-01-01T03:23:36	0	Walking	785	263.5532996107888	False	564.1441930826505	792	Female	9.9347918	53.5475968

Issues with CSV related to system settings

Depending on operating system setting and application settings (e.g., Excel), the separator/delimiter in CSV files are not identified correctly. This might lead to incorrect column separations while reading the file at the beginning of a simulation (agent initialization) or writing data into the file at the end of the simulation (simulation output data). To learn how to avoid this issue, please check out the section "CSV" in this tutorial.