# Table Format Type Settings Table Format > Type |

The Type tab defines the syntax of the data file. Delimited text files Pick Delimited if the fields are separated by a delimiter character such as a tab or comma. Mark the Detect checkbox to have the program automatically determine the delimiter. Otherwise, pick the Delimiters that separate the fields and pick the Text qualifier that optionally surrounds fields (necessary for data that contains the delimiter characters). Mark the Treat consecutive delimiters as one checkbox if a delimiter can consist of multiple delimiter characters. For example, if the data file contains columns separated by whitespace, you should enable this option and pick Space as the delimiter character. Unmark the Treat surrounding whitespace as part of delimiter checkbox if any whitespace next to a delimiter should be considered part of the data field. Fixed position text files Pick Fixed for files where fields are defined by position on the line. Enter the Column widths in a list separated by semicolons. All types Pick the First line contains option to control whether the first line in the file is treated as cell data or as column names. Normally, Table Compare tries to detect this but you can override it here.