CSV format for source data files

Overview

Source files for bulk data loading into Aerospike Graph Service (AGS) use the comma-separated values (CSV) format described here.

note

The AGS bulk loader requires source data files to be stored in a defined directory structure as described in the Directory Structure section of this page.

Header rows

Each CSV file has a comma-separated header row. Header rows must contain no spaces between delimited columns.

Vertex data file headers

Header	Required?	Description
~id	Yes	Unique ID for the vertex. ~id values may be of data type String, Int, or Long. Number values must be positive whole numbers.
~label	No	Label for the vertex. If ~label is not specified, the bulk loader adds a default value of vertex for the ~label field.

Edge data file headers

Header	Required?	Description
~from	Yes	Vertex ID of the from vertex.
~to	Yes	Vertex ID of the to vertex.
~label	No	Label for the edge. Each edge can have only one label. If ~label is not specified, the bulk loader adds a default value of edge for the ~label field.

note

AGS does not support user-provided ~id values for edges, so the ~id column is optional for edge CSV files. If your CSV file contains an ~id column, the values are ignored.

Property column headers

Specify a header for each data column with the format propertyname:type. propertyname specifies a name for the data column. type specifies a data type for the column. Columns with no data type specified default to type String.

Allowable data types

The following data types are allowed:

Data type	Allowable values
Bool or Boolean	true, false
Int	-2^31 to 2^31-1
Long	-2^63 to 2^63-1
Double	64-bit IEEE 754 floating point
String	Any string value. Quotation marks are optional.

List values

Any property may contain a list of values.

• All values in the list must be the same data type.
• Mixed type lists are not supported.
• To specify a list of values, add [] to the data type for the column. Example: qty:Int[].
• List values are separated by semicolons.
• Lists of strings are allowed, but the semicolon character cannot be escaped in a list of strings.

Data row elements

Rows must contain no spaces between delimited elements.

Element	Description
Delimiter	Fields are separated by commas. Records are separated by a newline or a newline followed by a carriage return.
Blank fields	Non-required columns may be left blank. Blank fields still require comma separators.
Vertex IDs	The ~id value must be unique for all vertices in every vertex file.
Edge IDs	User-provided ~id values for edges are not supported, so the ~id column is optional for edge CSV files. If your CSV file contains an ~id column, the values are ignored.
Labels	Labels are case sensitive.
String values	Surrounding string values with quotation marks is optional. Commas, newline, and carriage return characters are automatically escaped if they are included in a string surrounded by double quotation marks.

CSV format specification

The CSV file format follows the RFC 4180 CSV specification, including the following requirements.

• Both Unix and Windows-style line endings are supported (\n or \r\n).

• Any field may be surrounded with double quotation marks (").

• Fields containing a line-break, double-quote, or commas must be quoted. If they are not, the load process errors out immediately.

• Blank fields are allowed. A blank field is considered an empty value.

• For list type columns, semicolons are used as list item delimiters

For more information, see Common Format and MIME Type for CSV Files on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) website.

Data file examples

The following example vertex and edge data files illustrate an example graph of university student records.

Vertex file

The CourseNum field in the following example has no specified data type in the header row, so it defaults to type String and the data values are all stored as strings.

Data file:

~id,Name:String,Scores:Int[],Topic:String,Passed:Boolean,CourseNum
v1,"Bob Warner",32;67;21,"Physics",false,201
v2,"Gloria Mendes",41;85;92,"Music",true,"Three Hundred"
v3,"Susan Wolff",77;42;51,"Biology",false,330
v4,"James Halford",67;62;89,"Physics",true,101
v5,"Frieda Wolinsky",57;71;94,"Biology",true,"Two Forty"
v6,"Amy Cheng",28;59;73,"Music",false,101
v7,"Zack Hulot",59;77;93,"History",true,220
v8,"Rafael Kubelik",67;35;28,"History",false,"First Year Seminar"
v9,"Leah Starke",66;82;79,"Biology",true,330
v10,"Amber Florian",68;71;96,"Music",true,102

Tabular view of data:

~id	Name	Scores	Topic	Passed	CourseNum
v1	"Bob Warner"	32, 67, 21	"Physics"	false	"201"
v2	"Gloria Mendes"	32, 67, 21	"Music"	true	"Three Hundred"
v3	"Susan Wolff"	77, 42, 51	"Biology"	false	"330"
v4	"James Halford"	67, 62, 89	"Physics"	true	"101"
v5	"Frieda Wolinsky"	57, 71, 94	"Biology"	true	"Two Forty"
v6	"Amy Cheng"	28, 59, 73	"Music"	false	"101"
v7	"Zack Hulot"	59, 77, 93	"History"	true	"220"
v8	"Rafael Kubelik"	67, 35, 28	"History"	false	"First Year Seminar"
v9	"Leah Starke"	66, 82, 79	"Biology"	true	"330"
v10	"Amber Florian"	68, 71, 96	"Music"	true	"102"

Edge file

Data file:

~from,~to,~label,weight:Double
v1,v6,connected,0.7
v2,v9,connected,0.7
v3,v2,connected,0.7
v4,v8,connected,0.7
v5,v3,connected,0.7
v6,v4,connected,0.7
v7,v9,connected,0.7
v8,v1,connected,0.7
v9,v10,connected,0.7
v10,v3,connected,0.7

Tabular view of data:

~id	~from	~to	label	weight
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v1	v6	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v2	v9	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v3	v2	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v4	v8	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v5	v3	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v6	v4	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v7	v9	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v8	v1	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v9	v10	"connected"	0.7
(Auto-generated by AGS)	v10	v3	"connected"	0.7

Directory structure

Source data files must be stored in directories specified by the aerospike.graphloader.vertices and aerospike.graphloader.edges configuration options.

• The directory specified in aerospike.graphloader.vertices must contain one or more subdirectories of vertex CSV files.

• The directory specified in aerospike.graphloader.edges must contain one or more subdirectories of edge CSV files.

• The CSV files in any one subdirectory must all contain the same row format, with the same header rows.

Directory structure examples

Local files example

The following examples illustrate the directory structures for local files.

• Data directory: /opt/aerospike/graph/data

• Vertex directory: /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices

  • The aerospike.graphloader.vertices configuration option must be set to /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices.

• Vertex CSV subdirectory 1: /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir1

  • All CSV files in the vert_dir1 subdirectory must have the same row format.

• Vertex CSV subdirectory 2: /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir2

  • All CSV files in the vert_dir2 subdirectory must have the same row format.

• Edge directory: /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges

  • The aerospike.graphloader.edges configuration option must be set to /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges.

• Edge CSV subdirectory 1: /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges/edge_dir1

  • All CSV files in the edge_dir1 subdirectory must have the same row format.

Visual representation of the directory structure:

/opt/aerospike/graph/data 
|
---- /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/
|
-------- /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir1
| 
------------ /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir1/vert_file1.csv
------------ /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir1/vert_file2.csv
|
-------- /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir2
| 
------------ /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir2/vert_file3.csv
------------ /opt/aerospike/graph/data/vertices/vert_dir2/vert_file4.csv
|
---- /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges/
|
-------- /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges/edge_dir1
| 
------------ /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges/edge_dir1/edge_file1.csv
------------ /opt/aerospike/graph/data/edges/edge_dir1/edge_file2.csv

Cloud storage files example

The following example illustrates the directory structure for a set of CSV files stored in AWS S3 storage.

• S3 bucket: myBucket

• Vertex directory: /myBucket/vertices

  • The aerospike.graphloader.vertices configuration option must be set to s3://myBucket/vertices.

• Vertex CSV subdirectory 1: /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir1

  • All CSV files in the vert_dir1 subdirectory must have the same row format.

• Vertex CSV subdirectory 2: /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir2

  • All CSV files in the vert_dir2 subdirectory must have the same row format.

• Edge directory: /myBucket/edges

  • The aerospike.graphloader.edges configuration option must be set to s3://myBucket/edges.

• Edge CSV subdirectory 1: /myBucket/vertices/edge_dir1

  • All CSV files in the edge_dir1 subdirectory must have the same row format.

Visual representation of the directory structure:

/myBucket 
|
---- /myBucket/vertices/
|
-------- /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir1/
| 
------------ /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir1/vert_file1.csv
------------ /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir1/vert_file2.csv
|
-------- /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir2/
| 
------------ /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir2/vert_file3.csv
------------ /myBucket/vertices/vert_dir2/vert_file4.csv
|
---- /myBucket/edges/
|
-------- /myBucket/edges/edge_dir1/
|
------------ /myBucket/edges/edge_dir1/edge_file1.csv
------------ /myBucket/edges/edge_dir1/edge_file2.csv