Understanding the dataload spreadsheets

This section provides an overview of the dataload spreadsheets. Additional instructions are provided within the spreadsheets.

Data Management provides out-of-the-box dataload spreadsheets that can be copied to create your own spreadsheets.

Each workbook contains related spreadsheets. The first tab provides instructions for using the spreadsheet. Each of the subsequent tabs corresponds to the form into which the data is populated. 

Column headings provide instructions for completing that column of the spreadsheets according to the following standards:

• A green column heading indicates a required field. 
• An orange column heading indicates a field that might be required, depending on a value set in another column. 
• Text in the first row provides instructions for entering data in the column.

The number above each column heading is the database length of the field. This number corresponds to the number of bytes in the field. For English and other single-byte languages, the number of bytes is the same as the number of characters. Double-byte languages use two bytes per character.

Validation on each column indicates if you entered data longer than this maximum allowed length.

The successful validation of field lengths in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for multi-byte languages does not guarantee that the data will be imported successfully. The data import process uses the number of bytes when importing to fields while Excel validates the number of characters.

This validation occurs only when you type in the spreadsheet cells. If you bring in data by copying and pasting from another source or by importing data into the spreadsheet, you bypass the validation.

When you are completing spreadsheet fields that involve either selecting numbers or words, and your data is localized, you must select a number instead of a word.