# Opening series of files
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [May 31, 2020, 11:13am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461 "2020-05-31T11:13:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hossein\_Amini](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Hossein_Amini)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2020, 11:13am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/1 "2020-05-31T11:13:03Z")
I have 1000 files corresponding different time steps, can be opened by notepad++ containing 6 columns and I would like to plot 2 first columns as X & Y for watching the changes through the time. Each of the columns has been separated with space. Or, generally speaking, how to plot files using. I have done it by python but in terms of visualizing, I guess #paraview works better.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/2 "2020-06-01T01:25:21Z")
Should be opened in ParaView as a time series. Just make sure they are named, data\_0.txt, data\_1.txt…
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### Author:  [@Hossein\_Amini](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Hossein_Amini)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 8:07am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/3 "2020-06-01T08:07:14Z")
I know, but the problem is that I do not know how to exclude 2 first columns while all files have 6 columns.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 8:12am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/4 "2020-06-01T08:12:37Z")
No idea what you mean and why you would not want to read the first 2 columns.
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### Author:  [@Hossein\_Amini](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Hossein_Amini)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 9:11am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/5 "2020-06-01T09:11:39Z")
because each datafram has 6 columns but I need to plot just 2 first columns
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 9:13am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/6 "2020-06-01T09:13:16Z")
Still not sure to follow, but to me it looks like you can just open your file in ParaView and then plot them into ParaView.
Please share a file example if you need further help.
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### Author:  [@Hossein\_Amini](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Hossein_Amini)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/7 "2020-06-01T09:14:46Z")
35.01543513 -26.57954756 0.00000000 -2.16861438 0.00413876 0.08657771
-35.57857229 -25.75254594 1.00052743 -2.16447344 0.01066327 0.08713576
-36.13540573 -24.92006470 2.00207049 -2.14803275 0.01622148 0.08766248
-36.67166156 -24.07403258 3.00373943 -2.13011623 0.02000019 0.08806525
-37.19849939 -23.22183645 4.00563580 -2.10955049 0.02390955 0.08842167
-37.69994515 -22.35372082 5.00816889 -2.08138878 0.02707564 0.08854985
-38.17822151 -21.47276314 6.01058334 -2.05468257 0.02953798 0.08861590
-38.63271461 -20.57890134 7.01335594 -2.02364969 0.03152867 0.08856438
-39.05566814 -19.66945768 8.01634021 -1.99005421 0.03309393 0.08833426
-39.44917330 -18.74697639 9.01924501 -1.95728504 0.03416182 0.08793644
-39.81169276 -17.81169578 10.02232535 -1.92219203 0.03485628 0.08739251
-40.13960555 -16.86369147 11.02543999 -1.88648992 0.03520230 0.08671413
-40.43445586 -15.90499288 12.02845530 -1.85170873 0.03519649 0.08592654
-40.69566441 -14.93655952 13.03149720 -1.81625065 0.03499734 0.08503983
-40.92183859 -13.95939911 14.03449134 -1.78105116 0.03458800 0.08406462
-41.11424777 -12.97515427 15.03736680 -1.74694328 0.03399122 0.08303006
-41.27326208 -11.98502286 16.04018571 -1.71312010 0.03332802 0.08194311
-41.39868428 -10.99015884 17.04292453 -1.67991264 0.03258071 0.08081351
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### Author:  [@Hossein\_Amini](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Hossein_Amini)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 9:16am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/8 "2020-06-01T09:16:16Z")
I have attached a piece of results and as you can see it has 6 columns, how can I have the changes 2 first columns through the time
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 9:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/9 "2020-06-01T09:17:40Z")
just open your file with ParaView and plot it into the line chart view.
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### Author:  [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/opening-series-of-files/4461/10 "2020-06-01T14:48:28Z")
I think what @mwestphal is suggesting is that you let ParaView read in all 6 columns and then plot just 2. The csv/text file reader is not capable of selecting which columns to read (it always reads all of them). But all the plotting tools allow you to select what variables get plotted.