To use a CSV file

• In the project directory
  • Mine was in Documents/UnrealProjects/projectname/content.
  • Make a data directory.
• Create a CSV file.
  • You can do this with excl, or a text editor.
    • The first row contains headers.
    • Make sure these are good because you will use them later.
    • The first column header should be a comma (,)
    • All other columns should have a header.
    • 
    • The first column should be a unique "key", I just used a serial number.
  • Save this as something.csv
  • 
• Create a struct to hold the data in unreal
  • In your blueprints directory make a structure
  • Bluprints->structure
  • 
  • Add a member for each column in the CSV file.
  • 
• Import the data
  • Click the inport button in the content browser.
  • 
  • Select the csv file from the pop-up menu.
  • This will bring up an Data Table Options menu.
    • Import this as a Data Table (default)
    • Select your new structure to import
    • (DS_NewLevelDesc in my case)
    • And click ok.
    • 
  • You can click on the new data table to see the values were imported properly.
  • 
• To load the data at a level load
  • Open the level
  • Open the level blueprint
  • 
  • On the event begin play
    • Add node Get Data Table Row Names
    • Promote the input to a varable
    • Select your new data table (Different name than above, sorry)
    • 
    • Run the ouptut to a foreach loop, which will loop over the rows names (the unique keys in column 1 of the csv file) of the table.
    • Use this get each row from the table.
    • 
    • You can break the row into individual data fields and take an action on each field.
    • 
    • Note at the bottom of the above graph, a random number is generated and compared to the chance field to determine if the item is placed. That will feed the branch in the next graph.
    • Now based on the Type column, generate a new actor of that type.

      • if (chance > rand()/RAND_MAX) {
            if (type == "bat") {
                MakeBat()
            } else if (type == "health") {
                MakeHealth()
            }
        } 

      • 
    • Sorry, the next steps should really be cleaned up.
    • The make health routne:
      • 
      • Params was saved two steps back, and was a column in the CSV file.
    • The MakeBat routine

      • MakeBat() {
           pos = params.find(';');
           healthString = params.substr(0,pos);
           bat.health = atoi(healtString)
        
           damageString = params.substr(pos+1);
           bas.damage = atoi(damageString);
        } 

      • 
      • Note I had to add a controller to the bat at the end.