Any Harm In Sorting Csv Files In Excel?

I do the same for regular files I usually put my state at the top.

There should be no harm. I have done this with some of my POI files and everything still works just the same.

I have been doing this for years so that I can eliminate places I will not be visiting such as Canada, Alaska, or Hawaii. If the files are large I divided into East and west and put them on separate micro cards using the one where I am going.
In your case I would have sorted using column D for that is the state where the camera is in.

Thanks to all for the prompt replies.
I will sort again using column D for the states, then proceed to delete the areas I will never visit.

muell9k, it is possible to mess up the file by sorting, IF you only sort column A and not the rest as well. This would corrupt the data and cause the coordinates to not match up properly.

Otherwise, as long as the ENTIRE row remains intact, then there will be no issue.

I have never found a reason to open a file that I have downloaded from here, let alone sort it. The small reduction in file size isn't worth the risk IMO.

I would add that as far as I know CSV is not a native file format for any GPS, so a program that converts CSV to some other format like OV2 or GPX should re-sort the data if the order is indeed important.

For areas where new cameras are always being installed or removed, I update weekly. There isn't much point in sorting or modifying the file since that also would need to be done on a weekly basis.

dobs108

I sort all of the POIs I create by column A before I upload them

I take it for what it is. Of course, I am not a "Techie" and doing that sort of thing holds no magic for me. I certainly am amazed that one would have a reason to do it in the first place, other than the fun of it. Enjoy...

In order to help me understand why one would want to sort a file, could you point out something that is useful/different on the GPS once the sorted file is loaded using POILoader?

I always sort East West for I have over 50000 POI's on my 2 SD Micro cards and rising. With my mountain height and historical markers POI's running my 1490 at certain times freezes up and I have to reset. If you are using your GPS just to get to grandma's house then there is no need to sort. If I am not going east then there is no need to put 12000+ Civil War markers in my GPS.

Once the file is loaded into the GPS, it does not matter what order the POI is in. The unit will display them in order, from closest as the crow flies to the furthest.

Sorting will only benefit the user if they are removing POIs from the file prior to loading.

I open the speed and redlight camera in a text editor to replace all kph speeds with mph and add the Garmin "@" to the speed in each POI name, separate the 4th column into address, city & state, then open with Extra_POI_Editor and save as a gpx. That way I can open in MapSource to see all these POIs on a map. Since I use Gvim batch edit commands, the whole process takes me 5 minutes.

I don't find it useful to update every week. I'll update about every 2 months.

A caution using Excel for other POI files is that the zipcode leading zero is removed.

Add ' before the o, ie: '01234 and it won't disappear.

@dave817: It's not necessary to edit the speeds in the revenue enhancement camera files at all. The nüvi itself does the conversions, unless you have something other than a nüvi, which may not support this. Since I live in a state that forbids cameras it's not so important that I update the file weekly. Though if I'm going to Rhode Island, I will. They are the only state in New England that allows the accursed things.

That said, I mainly use Excel and the ASAP Utilities add-on on the US Rest Area file to modify the entries to be consistent with my own Canada Rest Area file. With 2600 entries it requires paying attention when sorting so that things don't get screwed up. Other than that, there is no harm in sorting as long as you are aware that the nüvi displays things sorted by distance.

I did sort in Excel using Coluum D (state), and yes I did select all columns.
Tested unit on the road and all functions properly.
It neatly alphabetized the states which is what I wanted. I did remove all the Canada entries since I know I won't be going there.

What's nice about sorting by state is you can visually see all the locations in your state rather trying to sift through rows and rows of data.

OK, granted it doesn't change how the GPS recognizes and warns about coordinates. I suppose I'm just a nerd with too much time on my hands.

To make sure that leading zeroes are not eliminated, convert columns to text before making changes and saving.

Converting a column to text to save the leading zeroes is only good until you read the file in again in Excel. As it is a CSV all formatting information gets stripped when the file is saved unless you remember to specify it again as text.

But if the column has other text in it, such as the address, city and state then the leading zero remains. It's only if there is nothing else in the column there is a problem.

you could download it again...just sayin'

Using Excel, an error could possibly be inserted into the Red Light Camera file. It is as simple as inserting an extra space, comma, or quote. You won't know about it until you are approaching a POI and the alert doesn't happen.

Load the file as it is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Save the file on your PC to a folder other than Custom POIs and sort to your heart's content - the sorting won't be loaded into the nuvi.

dobs108

I don't know what you are trying to say, but when I download a file from here, I just just run POI Loader to my nuvi. I have no reason to open it first, with any program.