REPORTS | My Reports |
Extract files are formatted so that they can be easily input into other programs, such as database programs, spreadsheets, word processors, and accounting programs. Using a Lumens extract and another program you can create mailing lists, analyze financial information or transfer it to your accounting application, and perform a variety of other analyses.
The output format "Comma Delimited" produces text files (also called “.csv” files) that you can open easily using Excel or other spreadsheet program, but you can use them exclusively with other programs such as database or word processing programs, depending on the task.
When you download a Comma Delimited file, be sure to indicate that you want to save the file to disk.
Make sure that you change the filename to something that will mean something to you and that “save as type” is “.txt”.
Note the folder and the path to the folder that you are saving the file to.
Lumens separates fields in a Comma Delimited file by a comma (that is, the field delimiter is a comma) and character fields are enclosed by quotation marks (double ticks.)
If you are opening a Comma Delimited file containing addresses in Excel, change the extract’s zip code field to text (from “General”). This way, you will be able to retain the first digit of any zip code that begins with a “0.”
Reports downloaded as Comma Delimited files often include fields that are not required, such as e-mail address, gender, job title, and referral source. If these fields are left blank, then they will appear as a blank space in a properly formatted file, or as an empty set of quotation marks in an unformatted file.
Several reports contain an age field. If a user did not enter a value for their birth date in their profile, then Lumens cannot compute the age of the user, and a “0” will be put in the age field on the report.