DSMapStudio CSV Export and Import Guide

Editing one weapon in the Param Editor is quick. Editing two hundred one field at a time is not — and that's CSV's job. DSMapStudio exports any param table to plain-text CSV you open in a spreadsheet or text editor, change in bulk, and import straight back into regulation.bin. The same feature lets mod authors ship a tiny .csv of just their changed rows instead of a whole regulation.bin, which is what makes row-level merging possible. (Combining two mods specifically? This is the mechanism behind the merge regulation.bin guide — learn the tool here, get the recipe there.)

Why CSV

• Bulk edits. Multiply every weapon's damage, zero a stat across a table, paste a column of new values — trivial in a spreadsheet, tedious row-by-row.
• Sharing. A CSV of modified rows is a few kilobytes of text. Nexus pages often ship exactly this so users import the changes instead of overwriting their regulation.bin.
• Merging. A CSV can carry only the rows you exported, so one mod's changed rows import on top of another mod's file — coexisting instead of overwriting.

It's text, so it's also diff-able and version-controllable once a mod grows.

Export

1. Select the param table (e.g. EquipParamWeapon).
2. Decide scope. Whole table: leave it unfiltered. Only your changes: type modified, then select the filtered view (Ctrl+A).
3. File → Export → Param CSV — use Selected Rows for a subset, or export the full param.
4. Save it, named after the param and mod (myMod_EquipParamWeapon.csv), so a folder of exports stays readable.

One file per table keeps imports unambiguous.

Export CSV → pick Selected rows (or Modified rows) to export only your changes. Frame from EucliFox's merge tutorial.

The CSV structure

Comma-separated text. The first column is the row ID, then the row's fields in column order, with a header row naming each field. One line = one row:

ID,Name,originValue,weight,attackBasePhysical,...
1000000,Dagger,-1,14,73,...
1010000,Parrying Dagger,-1,15,72,...

Two rules follow: the ID column is the key DSMapStudio uses to match a row back — never blank, reorder, or reformat it; and the field columns must keep their original order and count — deleting or shuffling columns breaks the mapping. Change values freely; treat the structure (header, ID column, column order) as fixed.

Editing in Excel or a text editor — the ID trap

Any spreadsheet (Excel, LibreOffice Calc) or plain text editor (Notepad, VS Code) works. Text editor is safest for small tweaks; a spreadsheet wins for column math. But:

⚠️ Excel corrupts row IDs if you just double-click the CSV. Param IDs are large numbers (1000000, 10000000), and Excel auto-converts them to scientific notation (1E+06), dropping precision. Import the row back and the IDs are wrong — a silent corruption you won't see until the game misbehaves: a default-settings Excel re-import lands scientific-notation IDs as wrong rows rather than throwing an error, so it's easy to miss. Avoid it: in Excel use Data → From Text/CSV and set the ID column type to Text before loading, or edit IDs in a plain text editor. LibreOffice Calc shows the same prompt — set the ID column to "Text" there too.

When saving, keep it as CSV (comma-delimited), UTF-8. Don't save .xlsx and rename it, and don't let a locale setting switch the delimiter to semicolons — DSMapStudio expects commas.

What you can and can't change

The structure itself — header, ID column, column order and count — is never something you change. Edit values inside the grid; leave the grid's shape alone.

Worked example — buff every weapon by 10%

The case that's painful in the UI and trivial in CSV:

1. Select EquipParamWeapon, leave unfiltered, File → Export → Param CSV for the whole table → weapons.csv.
2. Open with Data → From Text/CSV, ID column = Text.
3. Find the base physical attack column (e.g. attackBasePhysical). In a helper column, =ROUND(thatCell*1.1, 0) for every row, then paste the results back over the original column as values (not formulas).
4. Delete the helper column so the structure matches, save as CSV UTF-8.
5. In DSMapStudio: EquipParamWeapon → File → Import → Param CSV → Replace existing / add new rows → confirm.
6. Type modified — every weapon now shows modified with its boosted value.

Export → spreadsheet math → paste values → import handles any across-the-board change. (For a rule like "×1.1" with no export at all, mass edit is faster.)

Import

1. Select the same param the CSV came from (EquipParamWeapon CSV → EquipParamWeapon). Wrong table is a common mistake.
2. File → Import → Param CSV, pick the .csv.
3. Replace existing rows / add new rows overwrites matching IDs and appends new ones — the usual choice. Confirm.
4. Verify with modified, then save (Ctrl+S) to write into the project's regulation.bin.

"Export all" vs "export modified"

• All rows dumps the entire table — thousands of mostly-vanilla rows. Use for a full snapshot or whole-table math.
• Modified rows (filter modified, select, Export → Selected Rows) is a small CSV of only your changes. This is what you share and what you merge — importing it won't touch rows you didn't change.

For distribution and merging, always export modified only. A full-table CSV imported over someone else's mod would overwrite their rows with vanilla values.

Batch importing several CSVs

A mod shipping several CSVs (one per table) imports one table at a time: select EquipParamWeapon, import its CSV; select ItemLotParam, import its CSV; and so on. There's no auto-router for a folder of CSVs, so doing them individually is both correct and easy to verify with the Modified filter after each. To script this regularly, the command-line companion DSMSPortable imports CSVs in one pass — an advanced path covered in the DSMSPortable merge guide.

Common CSV errors

Put it to use: the merge regulation.bin guide combines two mods with exactly this workflow, the Param Editor hub covers other operations, and first project setup if your params aren't loading.