# Examples of importing data (csv files) code snippets don't seem to work

**URL:** <https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** wolfram-alpha, import-and-export\
**Created:** [April 25, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856 "2020-04-25T13:03:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jared](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/jared/32/3481_2.png) [@jared](https://community.wolfram.com/u/jared)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856/1 "2020-04-25T13:03:54Z")

</div>

I am new to WolframAlpha and Wolfram Language. I am trying to work with an imported csv file. I have been exploring the documentation, specifically:

> **[Table—Wolfram Documentation](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/format/Table.html)**
>
> Generic tabular data.

and

> **[CSV—Wolfram Documentation](https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/format/CSV.html)**
>
> MIME type: text/comma-separated-values, text/csv

On both pages there seem to be examples that don’t work. For example I can run:

```
Import["ExampleData/TreesOwnedByTheCityOfChampaign.csv"]

```

and the data is imported into the notebook (see screenshot). When I run the example provided in the documentation, though:

```
Import["ExampleData/TreesOwnedByTheCityOfChampaign.csv", "Dataset", "HeaderLines" -> 1]

```

I get an error:

```
"No Wolfram Language translation found" (see screenshot)

```

This happens with a number of examples such as:

```
DateListPlot[Import["ExampleData/financialtimeseries.csv"]]

```

In all cases the data seems to import properly, but none of the additional functions can be run on the data. Each of these examples comes straight from the documentation so I wonder if I am missing something fundamental about my setup.

Any help would be appreciated.

 ![ScreenShot2020-04-25at8.55.27AM.png](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/original/2X/c/c5c74bc15d086ba3f2a06327ea790db7f4682f3c.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benshimo](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/benshimo/32/681_2.png) [@benshimo](https://community.wolfram.com/u/benshimo)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 5:59am UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856/2 "2020-04-26T05:59:48Z")

</div>

I really do not know what the problem is  
This example works  
Import[“ExampleData/TreesOwnedByTheCityOfChampaign.csv”]  
and this example also works

```
Import["ExampleData/TreesOwnedByTheCityOfChampaign.csv", "Dataset", "HeaderLines" -> 1]

```

and this one too

```
DateListPlot[Import["ExampleData/financialtimeseries.csv"]]

```

I wonder why you try to use Wolfram Alpha exact commands? (BTW, the first WA example works too, so I stopped there)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jared](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/jared/32/3481_2.png) [@jared](https://community.wolfram.com/u/jared)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856/3 "2020-04-26T11:49:39Z")

</div>

I should note that I am on the WolframAlpha Notebook Edition on a Mac running MacOS Cataline (10.15.3) in case that may be the difference between your successful runs of the provided examples and my unsuccessful runs.

I am trying to run similar functions against a csv that I have. When the example code snippets did not work against my data I worried that my data may be invalid, but since the example code snippets are not running properly against the example datasets that suggests a different underlying problem and I have no idea what is causing the issue.

I provided the example code snippets directly because it seems like anyone should be able to run them against the example datasets they already have. As you were able to successfully it does seem like my notebook is not set up correctly in some way?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jared](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/jared/32/3481_2.png) [@jared](https://community.wolfram.com/u/jared)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856/4 "2020-04-26T16:15:30Z")

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I switched over to Wolfram Desktop from WolframAlpha Notebook Edition and now everything works. If anyone knows why WolframAlpha Notebook Edition doesn’t work I’d love to understand the differences better.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benshimo](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/benshimo/32/681_2.png) [@benshimo](https://community.wolfram.com/u/benshimo)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/examples-of-importing-data-csv-files-code-snippets-dont-seem-to-work/15856/5 "2020-04-26T16:22:58Z")

</div>

I use Mac OS X (Catalina) on various computers, using Mathematica v 12.1  
All behave the same…  
No experience with WA notebooks …

best

yehuda