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  - name: generator
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  - https://catboost.ai/docs/en/concepts/input-data_values-file.md
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    title: Markdown version
  - href: ../llms.txt
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    title: llms.txt
---
> **Documentation Index:** Fetch the complete configuration index at https://catboost.ai/docs/en/llms.txt

# Dataset in delimiter-separated values format


#### Contains

<!-- source: en/_includes/work_src/reusage-formats/dataset-desc__native-catboost__contains__full.md -->
For each object:
- A list of features.
- The target or multiple targets for multiregression (optional).
- Other [types of data](https://catboost.ai/docs/en/concepts/input-data_column-descfile.md).

Feature indices used in training and feature importance are numbered from 0 to `featureCount – 1`. Any non-feature column types are ignored when calculating these indices.
<!-- endsource: en/_includes/work_src/reusage-formats/dataset-desc__native-catboost__contains__full.md -->

#### Specification

- List each object on a new line.
- <!-- source: en/_includes/work_src/reusage/group-id__desc__group-by-group-id__obligatory.md -->
  All objects in the dataset must be grouped by group identifiers if they are present. I.e., the objects with the same group identifier should follow each other in the dataset.
  <!-- endsource: en/_includes/work_src/reusage/group-id__desc__group-by-group-id__obligatory.md -->

- If the group weight is specified, it must be the same for all objects in one group.
- Use any single char delimiters to separate data about a single object. The required delimiter can be specified in the training parameters. Tabs are used as the default separator.
- Use the feature types that are specified in the [columns description](https://catboost.ai/docs/en/concepts/input-data_column-descfile.md).
- List features in the same order for all the objects.
- Feature numbering starts from zero.

#### Example

The dataset consists of 6 columns.

The first column (indexed 0) contains label values.

<!-- source: en/_includes/work_src/reusage/hypothesis-value.md -->
The label (target) takes binary values:
- <q>0</q> stands for the absence of precipitation
- <q>1</q> stands for the presence of precipitation
<!-- endsource: en/_includes/work_src/reusage/hypothesis-value.md -->

Columns indexed 1, 2, 3 and 5 contain features.

The column indexed 4 contains arbitrary data.

<!-- source: en/_includes/work_src/reusage/file-with-column-descs.md -->
The file with the [columns description](https://catboost.ai/docs/en/concepts/input-data_column-descfile.md) with tab-separated data looks like this:
```
0<\t>Label
3<\t>Categ<\t>wind direction
4<\t>Auxiliary
```
<!-- endsource: en/_includes/work_src/reusage/file-with-column-descs.md -->

The feature indexed 3 is categorical, so the value in the second column of the description file is set to Categ. The name of this feature is set to <q>wind direction</q> in the third column of the description file.

Other features are numerical and are omitted from the columns description file.

The dataset file looks like this:
```
1<\t>–10<\t>5<\t>north<\t>Memphis TN<\t>753
0<\t>30<\t>1<\t>south<\t>Los Angeles CA<\t>760
0<\t>40<\t>0.1<\t>south<\t>Las Vegas NV<\t>705
```