How do I import CSVs to OpenChrom? My end objective is to compare GC outputs of samples in two groups using PCA. I have bene given the data in Excel format but have saved to CSV.

Whilst I can locate CSV files through OpenChrom, they all appear blank when I do so.

Having spend a lof of time trying to find the information, I cannot find the relevant info about how my CSV (or Excel) file should be formatted for OpenChrome.


I have columns for retention time (labelled "RT") and area (labelled "Area").
I have tried a simple file with two columns (RT and Area) for one sample. I have also tried files with multiple samples and columns, both with and without sample no. headers. (see pictures).


Whatever option I try, the charts in OpenChrom appear completely blank. I don't know if it's the data itself, the headings, the process I'm going through, not a clue what's going on to be frank.

Lastly, I would like to apologise that this may be a basic/naiive question for the forum. I've essentially been dumped with the work of running PCAs comparing GC data sets with little to no experience in doing so.

Thank you.
Oh my God! I hope I help you in time. I just spent hours dealing with the same issue, and I finally figured it out. Basically, OpenChrom will only read CSVs formatted in a very specific way, so you will have to change your .csv files to meet these requirements:


The first three columns MUST be have the headers 'RT(milliseconds)', 'RT(minutes) - NOT USED BY IMPORT', and 'RI', exactly as I have written them.
The second column ('RT(minutes) - NOT USED BY IMPORT') does not need any values; as its name suggests, it is not used by the import, but it still needs to be there! You will have to convert your times to milliseconds to populate the first column. The third column ('RI') is for retention indices, if you do not have them you must populate the entire column with zeros (0.0).
Every subsequent column must have an integer header representing the mass of the signal (e.g. '176' for m/z 176).
No trailing comma at the end of the line! E.g. a line of values should look like



  1,2,3,4
  
  5,6,7,8


and NOT 


  1,2,3,4,
  
  5,6,7,8,


In Excel, the only way for my files to save like this is if I save them as CSV (MS-DOS).

I hope this helps!