How to import .csv file in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel?

In this article, I'll explain to you how to export data from the Joonbot dashboard as a .csv file and access that data.

What is a .csv file?

A Comma Separated Values (CSV) file is a format where the values are separated by commas (that's where the name comes from. Get it?) It basically looks something like this:

Here, the first row contains the column names which label your data and each row has a conversation detail. Importing this data to a compatible application allow you to display them in tables or manipulate them accordingly. Various applications can be used to import and export .csv files.

How to export the data from the Joonbot dashboard?

Let's go through it step by step.

1. Open your chatbot in the Joonbot dashboard.

2. In the dashboard(1), open Analytics (2) → Conversations (3) and click on Export CSV(4).

3. Save the file in your local machine.

And just like that, you have exported your data. Now let's talk about accessing the file.

How can you access the comma-separated values from your Joonbot dashboard?

There are many applications that can be used to import the .csv file and manipulate the data. The most widely-used applications are Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.

Steps for Google Sheets:

1. Go to drive.google.com and create a new spreadsheet by clicking on new → Google Sheets.

2. When your Google Sheet is created, select File → Import

3. Import the file that we've downloaded in the previous steps.

4. Once the import is complete, this dialog box appears.

Since this is a new spreadsheet, you can let it replace the existing spreadsheet. For the separator, let it select automatically. The default separator is a comma (,) so this shouldn't bother you.

Check the "Convert text to numbers, dates, and formulas" checkbox if you want the data to be in its appropriate format.

Click on the import data button.

5. Once that is done, the data should be visible in your spreadsheet.

6. Rename your Google sheets and you are good to go!

Steps for Microsoft Excel:

1. Open Microsoft Excel and create a blank workbook.

2. From the menu, select Data → From Text/CSV

3. Select the file that we have downloaded in the earlier steps and click the import button.

4. In the dialog box that appears, select the file origin, delimiters, and data type selection as shown in the screenshot below and click on the "Load" button.

5. Once the data is loaded, the data on the spreadsheet should look something like this:

6. Now you can save the document as an Excel Workbook, or any other excel format that you want the data to be. 

With the files now transformed from .csv to a spreadsheet format in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, you can view, edit and transform the data to find various analytics data from the conversations of your clients.

You can now start doing analytics!