CARTO User Manual
Importing data
CARTO allows to create geospatial tables in an organization’s CARTO Data Warehouse, BigQuery connection and Snowflake connection, 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.
To import your data, go to Data Explorer section and click on the Import data button on the top right (or the import data icon, if you have a connection or folder selected):
A new dialog will open allowing you to import your data into the available connections.
When you import a file, the Auto-guessing option is always enabled by default. This option allows you to automatically guess column data types in the imported table.
Once you have selected your file, click on Continue:
The next screen will allow you to set the location and name of the output table. Once you have completed this configuration, click on Save here.
The last screen will show you a summary of the details for your confirmation. To confirm, 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.
There are three possible status: importing, imported successfully or dataset creation error.
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.
Once the your data has been imported, it will be available as a table on your selected folder and you will have access the map and data preview as well as creating map in Builder.
You can also overwrite existing files. When you import a file with an existing name, a message will appear warning you that the table already exists in the destination folder. Click on Save here to continue and overwrite it or click on Cancel if you don’t want the changes to be applied.
If you do not have permissions, a message will appear warning you that the table already exists in the destination folder. Select a new location or click on Cancel if you don’t want the changes to be applied.
Importing methods
You can import your data through two different methods: Local or Remote.
- Local
This method allows you to upload your data from your computer. To import a local file, select the icon on the left:
- Remote
This method allows you to enter a supported URL file. To import a remote URL, select the icon on the right.
Supported formats
Currently, the import of CSV, GeoJSON, GeoPackage, KML, KMZ, TAB 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.
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.
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.
