Comma-Separated Values (CSV)

CSV files are used in the system from multiple point of views. The system reads CSV files and infers on of the following separators: comma ,, semicolon ;, space `, or _tabulator_\t`.

The system creates CSV files for simulation . Below is a description for both use cases.

How to assign agent attribute values with data from a CSV file?

In the simulation configuration file (see this article for more information), an agent initialization file can be specified for each agent type. The file needs to contain a header row with attribute names (note: these names must match the attribute names in the corresponding agent type class). Each subsequent row is used to assign values to one agent's attributes. If the CSV file contains fewer rows than the number of agents instantiated at the beginning of the simulation, then the initialization file will loop back to the first row until all agents' attributes have values.

Here is an example of an agent initialization file:

gender length age worker partTimeWorker averageSpeed speed position height width mass
1 0.22 29 True False True 0 1.7 0.46 65
0 0.22 26 True True True 0 1.72 0.46 75.35
1 0.22 33 True False True 0 1.71 0.46 66.94
1 0.22 49 True True True 0 1.71 0.46 62.51
1 0.22 55 True False True 0 1.72 0.46 71.06
1 0.22 19 True True True 0 1.71 0.46 69.06
1 0.23 27 True False True 0 1.75 0.47 62.04
0 0.22 29 True False True 0 1.72 0.46 89
0 0.22 28 True False True 0 1.72 0.46 94.97
1 0.22 50 True False True 0 1.7 0.46 71.41

Columns are mapped automatically to the input attributes of the agent when using the AgentManager. More about spawning can be found here.

How to store simulation output data in a CSV file?

Simulation output data can be stored in a CSV file. For more information on this and on how to store data in a database, please click here.

Here is an example of a simulation output file:

Tick Step DateTime Acceleration ActiveCapability ActualTravelTime Bearing CurrentlyCarDriving DistanceStartGoal ExpectedTravelTime Gender GoalX GoalY
365 365 2020-01-01T00:06:05 0 Walking 363 69.97634115090324 False 539.1496372361638 362 Female 9.9507224 53.5449285
4856 4856 2020-01-01T01:20:56 0 Walking 417 0 False 447.5835438681768 418 Male 9.9503878 53.5444032
6359 6359 2020-01-01T01:45:59 0 Walking 539 246.87714679703578 False 796.4590189678215 482 Male 9.9443762 53.5506118
6798 6798 2020-01-01T01:53:18 0 Walking 298 0 False 715.490939532274 331 Female 9.9430225 53.5518429
7506 7506 2020-01-01T02:05:06 0 Walking 84 0 False 63.42180081824236 85 Male 9.9427109 53.5518512
7748 7748 2020-01-01T02:09:08 0 Walking 208 0 False 227.9140326289338 209 Female 9.9454153 53.5468596
7826 7826 2020-01-01T02:10:26 0 CarDriving 208 0 False 497.89803147717004 206 Male 9.9479601 53.5535065
11152 11152 2020-01-01T03:05:52 0 Walking 578 356.9962451289335 False 254.03827739817234 595 Male 9.9376733 53.5440066
11644 11644 2020-01-01T03:14:04 0 Walking 6 135.22416886964015 False 5.3213083928973735 7 Male 9.9517046 53.5605164
11743 11743 2020-01-01T03:15:43 0 Walking 12 0 False 15.266971536423336 13 Female 9.9438129 53.5508932
12216 12216 2020-01-01T03:23:36 0 Walking 785 263.5532996107888 False 564.1441930826505 792 Female 9.9347918 53.5475968

Depending on operating system setting and application settings (e.g., Excel), the separator/delimiter in CSV files are not identified correctly. This might lead to incorrect column separations while reading the file at the beginning of a simulation (agent initialization) or writing data into the file at the end of the simulation (simulation output data). To learn how to avoid this issue, please check out the section "CSV" in this tutorial.