# Plotting simple 1D column data

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [May 20, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374 "2020-05-20T14:54:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![vrkssai](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/e19b73/32.png) [@vrkssai](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/vrkssai)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374/1 "2020-05-20T14:54:41Z")

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Hi all  
I was just wondering how to make a simple 1D plot in paraview, i.e. what reader to open it with (I couldn’t use the tecplot reader, eventhough it can be opened in tecplot). I have data of format (column data with tab spaces, unable to depict that below so added “–tab–”):

x --tab – v1–tab-- v2–tab-- v3  
. --tab – . --tab – . --tab – .  
. --tab – . --tab – . --tab – .  
. --tab – . --tab – . --tab – .

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### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 2:54am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374/2 "2020-05-21T02:54:02Z")

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Delimited Text Reader, which will be automatically selected if you use a .csv file.

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### Author: ![vrkssai](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/e19b73/32.png) [@vrkssai](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/vrkssai)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 11:43am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374/3 "2020-05-21T11:43:32Z")

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I’m trying to plot the columns in the .csv file I’m attaching below.  
[line.csv](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/5afuBPCI83O5QRaWodD0usgSHmR.csv) (2.4 KB)  
Small correction: Its not tab separated but rather fixed width separated. How do I let paraview know this?  
It shows them as row data when I open in paraview, it shows Attribute: Row Data. I don’t think thats correct and I’m unable to plot it, using Plot Data Filter.

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374/4 "2020-05-21T13:40:22Z")

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First, I recommend naming your file `line.txt`, not `line.csv`. .csv stands for _Comma_ Separated Values. Your values are separated by spaces, not commas. Using .txt will be less confusing for both humans and computers, and ParaView will recognize .txt as an extension and use the same delimited text reader.

Next, like you said, your file does not have tabs, it has spaces. To read this file correctly, make the following changes in the `Properties` pannel:

- Uncheck `Have Headers`
- Change `Field Delimiter Characters` to be a space
- Check `Merge Consecutive Delimiters`

You will see that your data gets read correctly now. The `Plot Data` filter will work now, too.

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### Author: ![vrkssai](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/e19b73/32.png) [@vrkssai](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/vrkssai)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/plotting-simple-1d-column-data/4374/5 "2020-05-21T13:45:41Z")

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Thank you!