Corrected CSV files for few POIs

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Again, welcome

It sounds like - since you reference "columns" in your original post - that you downloaded some .csv files. You should be aware that POI Loader has rules about the .csv files it will use. Poi Loader is the software that Garmin has provided for us to load "Custom POI" files into our devices.

So, there may be a reason why the creator of the POI files you downloaded did what they did.

POI Loader help say the following:

As you see, POI Loader thinks of files as having 4 columns in this order.
Lon
Lat
Name
Comment

Now, Those of us who are maintaining POI files have learned that we can use the "Comment" field for many purposes, and most use it to include information such as:
Street address
City
State
Zipcode
Phone

Since this address information (if included) must be in ONE column, we separate each internal field from the others using a comma AND enclose the entire sequence of data in double quotes - like the last example in the POI Loader help quoted above.

Once again, Welcome

John

The format of the CSV file is such there is no standard way of presenting the data. There are two fixed format entries, LAT and LON which are decimal degrees with up to 6 places for precision. The third field in the Garmin format is simply "POI Name" or "Name." There is no fixed format for this field as the only guidance is it is a required entry to identify the coordinates. Experience shows this field is limited to a maximum of 20 characters. The fourth field is labeled either "Description" or "Comment" and again has no requirements as to what information should be placed in this field.

Among the most prolific CSV file contributors, Bill Mahoney is probably the most consistent. His Name field almost always is a "proper" name for the location in which he often includes the state abbreviation. His Description of Comment field almost always has the street address, city, state, post code (when available) and telephone number.

Several years ago there was quite a discussion in these forums about coming up with a "standard" format for CSV files, but it truly was a lost cause. The 4 column CSV file is so easy to create and so versatile it is almost impossible to 'force' a standard on contributors.

The Rand-McNally CSV format is different in there are 9 required entries and if a position is missing or skipped, its position has to be noted with just a comma unless the empty positions trail the last entry.

Speaking of differences, the Tom-Tom format for a CSV is only three entries, LAT, LON (LON/LAT) and Name. The description or comment field is not used. This difference is the reason the Rest Area file maintenance was recently changed as the original maintainer used 4 columns, the next used only 3 for Tom-Tom and now it has been transferred again to Mahoney for the reinstatement of the 4th field.

The best situation for "standardizing" CSV files is probably to let sleeping dogs lie. Personally, I rework all the CSV files I download with the exception of one and convert them to GPX.

+1, I do the same thing as well

I will not worry about the format of POI file as long as POI loader installs it successfully.

my only issue is a few of my POI's have wrong address every now and then one takes me to wrong place... but other then that I have never had an issue getting them to DL or load to any of my GPS's

If you got your POI's from here then send a note to the maintainer with the corrections

As was discussed here probably five years ago, a POI's address is not necessarily where the POI itself is. For example, a park's street address may be an administrative building miles away from the park itself. FWIW, I use Google Earth to get the exact (well, to six decimal places, anyway) lon/lat of the park's parking lot.

Phil

Thanks everyone for all your responses. Regards.