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CSV Import Format

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KaneQuah edited this page Jul 8, 2026 · 1 revision

CSV Import Format

Decks can be bulk-populated by importing a CSV file (CsvImporter). Two header layouts are supported and auto-detected based on which columns are present — you don't need to declare which one you're using.

Required columns

Every row needs, at minimum:

Column Aliases Notes
front prompt The question text.
back answer The correct answer.

If neither front/prompt or back/answer is found in the header, the whole import is rejected with an error. Rows where front or back is blank are silently skipped.

Optional columns

Column Notes
type One of FLASHCARD, MATH, MCQ, LANGUAGE (case-insensitive). Defaults to FLASHCARD if missing or unrecognized.
hint Free text, shown to the user when hints are allowed by the deck's failure policy.
id, category, image Accepted (Format A) but currently ignored on import.

Distractors (wrong-answer options for MCQ)

Distractors can be supplied in either of two shapes — pick whichever is easier to generate:

Format A — single JSON-array column

id,front,back,type,category,distractors,hint,image
1,"What is the capital of France?","Paris",MCQ,geography,"[""London"",""Berlin"",""Madrid""]",,
  • Column name: distractors
  • Value: a JSON array of strings, e.g. ["London","Berlin","Madrid"]
  • Must start with [ to be recognized as JSON — otherwise it's ignored.

Format B — individual columns

front,back,type,hint,distractor1,distractor2,distractor3
What is the capital of France?,Paris,MCQ,Starts with P,London,Berlin,Madrid
  • Columns: distractor1, distractor2, distractor3
  • Blank distractor cells are dropped (you can supply fewer than 3).

If neither shape is present, the question is imported with an empty distractor list (fine for FLASHCARD type).

Minimal example (flashcards only)

front,back
What is the powerhouse of the cell?,Mitochondria
2 + 2,4

type defaults to FLASHCARD and no distractors are needed for plain flashcards.

Import behavior

  • The first row is always treated as the header; header names are matched case-insensitively after trimming whitespace.
  • Rows with fewer columns than required (missing front/back cells) are skipped and reported in errors.
  • Each imported question gets a freshly generated ID — any id column in the CSV is not reused.
  • The importer returns a count of successfully imported questions, a skipped count, and a list of per-line error messages, so a bad row won't abort the whole import.

Encoding

Files are read as UTF-8. Save your CSV as UTF-8 (not UTF-16 or a legacy codepage) to avoid mangled characters, especially for non-English content.

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