# Waveform Files (XY Values) (.csv)

XY- value waveform files are comma-separated-value ASCII files (.csv) comprised of a header followed by voltage and time values for each data point. The ASCII amplitude values are in Volts or Watts while the X-axis values are in time. Each value is separated by a carriage return and line feed. Like the Y-value format, this format can be imported into many spreadsheet or word processing programs.

XY-value format is designed for waveforms that have been sampled using unequal time separations between adjacent data points. Unequal time separations occur when any of the following conditions are true:

- The waveform is the output of the versus operator in a function.

XY-value format files use more disk space than HDF5 format files (.h5).

## Options for saving XY-Value Waveforms (.csv format)

You can choose to save All Data or just the On-Screen Data.

Select Linearly Interpolate to enforce equal spacing of waveform data points. In cases where data is missing for sample locations, linear interpolation is used to fill-in the missing data values.

Clear the Include Header check box to omit header information from the saved file. Files saved without header information cannot be loaded back into waveform memories.

## Example XY-Value Format File

    File Format, WaveformXYValues
    Format Version, 2
    Instrument, D9300A
    SwVersion, P.25.00.80
    SerialNumber, MXL3441NC2
    Date, 2/2/2025 22:05:08 GMT-07:00

    Source Name, Channel 1
    DataDigest,

    Points, 102401
    Signal Type, Unspecified
    Channel Noise, 0.002
    X Units, Second
    Y Units, Volt
    Data,
    double, float
    -5.0000000000000004E-08, -0.24957995
    -4.99990234375E-08, -0.24912196
    -4.9998046875000007E-08, -0.24854846
    .
    .
    .

XY-value format definition version 2 explicitly describes the precision of the X and Y data values (for example, 64-bit "double" for X values and 32-bit "float" for Y values in the previous example). In Version 1, the X and Y value precision is assumed to be a 64-bit "double" (although Y values could have been saved with limited significant digits).

## More Information

- Waveform Memories
- Types of Memory