markdown/datamgmt/load/g-formatting-data-files.html.md.erb

---
title: Formatting Data Files
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When you use the HAWQ tools for loading and unloading data, you must specify how your data is formatted. `COPY`, `CREATE             EXTERNAL TABLE, `and `hawq load` have clauses that allow you to specify how your data is formatted. Data can be delimited text (`TEXT`) or comma separated values (`CSV`) format. External data must be formatted correctly to be read by HAWQ. This topic explains the format of data files expected by HAWQ.

-   **[Formatting Rows](../../datamgmt/load/g-formatting-rows.html)**

-   **[Formatting Columns](../../datamgmt/load/g-formatting-columns.html)**

-   **[Representing NULL Values](../../datamgmt/load/g-representing-null-values.html)**

-   **[Escaping](../../datamgmt/load/g-escaping.html)**

-   **[Character Encoding](../../datamgmt/load/g-character-encoding.html)**