Creating a table from CSV file with strings?

Question

I want to create a table from a CSV file in LaTex. I am able to do it with numbers here but creating table for strings such as abbrevions does not work. What is the problem?

MVE

This example fires error "Package PGF Math Error: Could not parse input '...' as a floating point number, sorry."

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable,filecontents}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.9}% supress warning

\begin{filecontents*}{test.csv}
Abbreviation, Description
ACG, Azeri Chirag Guneshli
bcm, Billion cubic meters
BTC, Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan
CIA, Central Intelligence Agency
Btu, British thermal unit
CAC, Central Asia Center
EU, European Union
LNG, Liquified Natural Gas
NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
OMV, Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}
\pgfplotstabletypeset[col sep=comma, columns={Abbreviation,Description}]{test.csv}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Add the string type option:

Notes:

• To control the alignment of each row you can specify the style for each row.

  columns/Abbreviation/.style={column type=l},
  columns/Description/.style={column type=l},
  

  Alternatively you can set the alignment for all columns via column type=l.

• To add the horizontal lines, I used the booktabs package and the every head row and every last row keys.

Code:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.9}% supress warning


%\usepackage{filecontents}% <-- commented to prevent overwriting fuel
\begin{filecontents*}{test.csv}
Abbreviation, Description
ACG, Azeri Chirag Guneshli
bcm, Billion cubic meters
BTC, Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan
CIA, Central Intelligence Agency
Btu, British thermal unit
CAC, Central Asia Center
EU, European Union
LNG, Liquified Natural Gas
NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
OMV, Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}
\pgfplotstabletypeset[
    string type, 
    col sep=comma, 
    columns={Abbreviation,Description},
    columns/Abbreviation/.style={column type=l},
    columns/Description/.style={column type=l},
    every head row/.style={before row=\toprule,after row=\cmidrule(lr){1-1}\cmidrule(lr){2-2}},
    every last row/.style={after row=\bottomrule}
    ]{test.csv}
\end{document}

Answer 2

This is a lightly modified version of someonr's answer

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csvsimple}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.csv}
Abbreviation, Description
ACG, Azeri Chirag Guneshli
bcm, Billion cubic meters
BTC, Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan
CIA, Central Intelligence Agency
Btu, British thermal unit
CAC, Central Asia Center
EU, European Union
LNG, Liquified Natural Gas
NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
OMV, Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tabular}{ll}%
      \toprule
      \bfseries Abbreviation & \bfseries Description% specify table head
      \csvreader[%
        head to column names,
        after head=\\\midrule,
        late after line=\\,
        ]{\jobname.csv}{}% use head of csv as column names
      {\Abbreviation & \Description}% specify your coloumns here
      \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
\end{document}

• head to column names lets you say \Abbreviation and \Description rather than using the internal \csvcoli etc.
• If you take the rules and new lines out of the main definition, you can tweak the formatting a little better.
• after head sets the code for the end of the header line (\\\midrule)
• late after line sets the code for the end of each row of the tabular (\\)
• You can then use \toprule and \bottomrule at the head and foot of the tabular without ending up with either complaints about misplaced align characters or excessive vertical spacing between the last line of the tabular and the final rule.