Skip to main content

CSV (Comma Separated Value)

CSV format with Well-Known Text (WKT) geometries for simple tabular geospatial data.

Driver Metadata​

PropertyValue
Short NameCSV
Long NameComma Separated Value (.csv)
Supported Sincev0.1.0
Status✅ Stable
File Extension.csv

Driver Capabilities​

  • ✅ Read Support: Full
  • ✅ Write Support: Full
  • ✅ Info Support: Yes
  • ✅ Geometry Format: WKT (Well-Known Text)
  • ✅ Geometry Types: Point, LineString, Polygon, MultiPoint, MultiLineString, MultiPolygon

Format Description​

CSV (Comma Separated Value) files with WKT (Well-Known Text) geometries stored in a column.

Reading Data​

Get Information​

geoetl-cli info cities.csv \
  --driver CSV \
  --geometry-column geometry
IMPORTANT

The --geometry-column parameter is REQUIRED for all CSV operations.

Unlike GeoJSON (which has a standard geometry structure), CSV files can have any column name for geometries. You must explicitly tell GeoETL which column contains your WKT geometries.

Convert from CSV​

geoetl-cli convert \
  --input cities.csv \
  --output cities.geojson \
  --input-driver CSV \
  --output-driver GeoJSON \
  --geometry-column geometry

Read Options​

OptionTypeRequiredDescription
--geometry-columnstringYesName of column containing WKT geometries
--geometry-typestringNoGeometry type hint (Point, LineString, Polygon, etc.)

Writing Data​

Convert to CSV​

geoetl-cli convert \
  --input data.geojson \
  --output data.csv \
  --input-driver GeoJSON \
  --output-driver CSV

Write Behavior​

  • Geometry column is always named geometry
  • All properties become CSV columns
  • WKT strings are quoted if they contain commas
  • UTF-8 encoding by default

Examples​

Example 1: Convert GeoJSON to CSV​

geoetl-cli convert \
  -i cities.geojson \
  -o cities.csv \
  --input-driver GeoJSON \
  --output-driver CSV

Example 2: Convert CSV to GeoJSON​

geoetl-cli convert \
  -i data.csv \
  -o data.geojson \
  --input-driver CSV \
  --output-driver GeoJSON \
  --geometry-column wkt

Example 3: Convert CSV to GeoParquet​

geoetl-cli convert \
  -i data.csv \
  -o data.parquet \
  --input-driver CSV \
  --output-driver GeoParquet \
  --geometry-column geometry

Troubleshooting​

Error: Geometry Column Not Found​

Error: Geometry column 'geometry' not found

Cause: The CSV file uses a different column name (e.g., wkt, geom, the_geom)

Solution: Specify the correct column name:

geoetl-cli convert -i data.csv -o data.geojson \
  --input-driver CSV --output-driver GeoJSON \
  --geometry-column wkt

Error: Invalid WKT​

Error: Failed to parse WKT

Common causes:

# ❌ Missing coordinates
"POINT()"

# ❌ Wrong format
"POINT: -122, 37"

# ❌ Extra spaces
"POINT ( -122  37 )"

Solution:

# ✅ Correct format
"POINT(-122.4194 37.7749)"

Error: Encoding Problems​

Symptoms: Special characters appear as � or weird symbols

Solution: Ensure UTF-8 encoding

# Convert to UTF-8 (Linux/macOS)
iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 input.csv > output.csv

# Then convert with GeoETL
geoetl-cli convert -i output.csv -o data.geojson \
  --input-driver CSV --output-driver GeoJSON \
  --geometry-column geometry

See Also​

Tutorials:

Other Drivers:

Reference:

References​