CARTO User Manual

CARTO User Manual

Importing data

CARTO allows to create geospatial tables in an organization’s CARTO Data Warehouse by importing files from your computer or via URL. Once a file is imported, the resulting table can be previewed in Data Explorer and used in Builder and external applications to create maps.

Supported formats

Currently, the import of CSV, GeoJSON and Shapefiles (in a zip package) is supported. The size limit for a single import process is 512MB. Please get in touch with us if you need a higher limit.

For CSV files, CARTO will try and autodetect the geometry column or create the geometries from latitude/longitude columns. The supported column names are:

  • For geometry: geom,Geom,geometry,the_geom,wkt,wkb
  • For latitude: latitude,lat,Latitude
  • For longitude: longitude,lon,Lon,Longitude,lng,Lng

The expected delimiters are: comma (,), semi-colon (;) or a tabulation.

To import your data, go to Data Explorer section, select Connections panel and click on Import data button on the top left:

Data Explorer import data icon

A new dialog will open allowing you to import your data from your computer into the provisioned CARTO Data Warehouse connection.

Data Explorer import select file

You can import your data through two different methods: Local or Remote.

  • Local

To import a local file, select the icon on the left:

Data Explorer import local

This interface will allow you to upload a supported file, such as GeoJSON or Shapefile (.zip), into CARTO Data Warehouse and set the name of the output table on your organization data shared folder.

Data Explorer import select file local

Once you have completed this configuration, click on Continue:

Data Explorer import select file local continue

The next screen will show you a summary of the configuration of the table for your confirmation. To confirm, click on Import :

Data Explorer import confirmation local

Once you click on Import, a new dialog will open informing you that the import may take a while to process and giving you the option to follow the status from a new dialogue box that appears at the top right corner of the screen.

Data Explorer importing local to carto dw

There are three possible status: importing, imported successfully or dataset creation error.

Data Explorer importing local

Data Explorer imported successfully local

Data Explorer dataset creation error local

When an error occurs, you can click on Read more to get more information about the error or hover the mouse over the dataset name or over the information icon. You can also click on Clear to clear the list when the imports have finished.

Data Explorer view error info local

Once the your data has been imported, it will be available as a table on your organization data shared folder and you will have access the map and data preview as well as creating map in Builder.

Data Explorer import populated places

  • Remote

To import a remote URL, select the icon on the right.

Data Explorer import remote

This interface will allow you to enter your supported URL file, such as GeoJSON or Shapefile (.zip), into CARTO Data Warehouse and set the name of the output table on your organization data shared folder.

Data Explorer import select file url

Once you have completed this configuration, click on Continue:

Data Explorer import selected file continue url n The next screen will show you a summary of the configuration of the table for your confirmation. To confirm, click on Import :

Data Explorer import confirmation url

Once you click on Import, a new dialog will open informing you that the import may take a while to process and giving you the option to follow the status from a new dialogue box that appears at the top right corner of the screen.

Data Explorer importing url to carto dw

There are three possible status: importing, imported successfully or dataset creation error.

Data Explorer importing url

Data Explorer imported successfully url

Data Explorer dataset creation error url

When an error occurs, you can click on Read more to get more information about the error or hover the mouse over the dataset name or over the information icon. You can also click on Clear to clear the list when the imports have finished.

Data Explorer url view error info

Once the your data has been imported, it will be available as a table on your organization data shared folder and you will have access the map and data preview as well as creating map in Builder.

Data Explorer import land

Deleting data

In the Data Explorer section of the Workspace, you can view the list of your current data warehouse(s) and data observatory subscriptions. You can access the quick actions menu to manage your data by clicking on the “three dots” icon in the top-right corner. There are different options available depending on whether it is a table or a tileset.

Data Explorer quick actions table menu

Data Explorer qjuick actions tileset menu

If you click the Delete quick action, a dialog will appear allowing you to confirm that you want to delete the selected table or tileset. It includes information about data sources, layers, applications and API calls related to the existing dataset that could potentially be affected by the action. Click the Yes, delete button to confirm the changes or click Cancel if you don’t want the changes to be applied.

Data Explorer dialog delete table