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).