The ArcView® input file format is comprised of header records and data records :
• Data records are comma-delimited XYZ type data. This means that each data record contains at least 3 fields: x-coordinate location, a y-coordinate location, and the value for at least one z variate measured at that x-y location (single-dimension transects will have only x-coordinate and z variate data values). Additional fields can hold other variates for that location, e.g. sample ID, other measured z-variates. The ArcView XYZ input format is not the same as the ArcInfo Ascii Raster File Format, which is a Kriging output format that can be read directly by ArcInfo® or ArcView® GIS software.
• A single header record precedes the data records and contains field (variate) names for the data record fields. Names are within quotes and comma-delimited.
• Missing values are indicated by blank fields.
Any of these parameters (field delimiters, number of header records, missing value indicators, etc.) can be changed to a custom format from the File Import Properties window.
The following listing is the first 9 records of a standard ArcView™ input file that has fields for an x-coordinate, y-coordinate, and one z variate. Note the three variate names in record 1 and the missing values in records 5 and 9:
“X data”,”Y data”,”Z1 data”
4.5,11.9,0.42
2.7,29.4,0.45
1.6,32.6,0.08
4.1,,0.65
0.6, 64,0.14
2.4, 71.8,0.32
7.8, 3.5,0.12
6.7,10.2,
6.7,16.3, 0.49