Why CSV Has Both Rating and Circle—and Why They Can Disagree

SlateX CSV uses one row per camera and still writes one row when a take has no camera. Its header and column order are fixed, and new columns can only be appended to the existing sequence. Rating and Circle both look as though they describe the same on-set judgment, but they are not two independent on-set states: both are derived from the rating number under different conditions, so one record can produce values that appear to disagree.

Rating and Circle are both handoff fields derived from the rating number; they should not be treated as two independent records of on-set circled state.

CSV rows are expanded by camera first

A take with several cameras is expanded into corresponding CSV rows; a take with no camera still produces one row, and the camera-related columns do not share one missing-value shape: some stay empty while others fall back to a default, so a receiver should check them column by column. The header uses fixed English column names, and the column order is defined as a constant rather than changing with the app's interface language.

That is consistent with What a CSV Handoff Carries That an ALE Does Not: the CSV structure has to be checked from the file itself rather than inferred from another handoff format that may carry different columns.

Rating turns the rating number into fixed English text

The Rating mapping is fixed: 4 writes Circle, 3 writes Keep, 2 writes Hold, 1 writes N/G, and an unmarked take writes an empty string. These handoff values are English constants and do not change with the interface language.

Rating is therefore the text form of the numeric rating, not a separate read of on-set state. Chinese, English, and other interface languages can display their own localized labels, while this CSV field continues to write the fixed English words.

Circle only asks whether the rating is 4

The Circle rule is narrower: rating 4 writes TRUE, and every other rating writes FALSE. The column has no empty branch, so an unmarked take, Keep, Hold, and N/G all receive an explicit false value rather than a blank cell.

That creates the apparent contradiction at the center of this page. When a take is marked Keep on set, an internal circled flag is also set on some write paths, but CSV Circle does not read that flag; it only asks whether the rating equals 4. The resulting row therefore contains Rating=Keep together with Circle=FALSE.

Neither column reads the on-set status or circled flag

Neither Rating nor Circle reads the on-set status text or the circled flag. They take the same numeric rating through two different derivation rules. A receiver therefore cannot interpret the Circle column as a direct record of “was this circled on set,” and the two columns are not independent sources that can validate each other.

The supported conclusion is narrower: rating visibility differs across handoff formats, and this page gives the source of the two CSV columns. Neither column carries that internal flag, so Circle cannot be read back as the on-set circled state, and it is equally inaccurate to say the on-set state travels intact with the CSV.

A Keep take can produce Rating=Keep and Circle=FALSE; the mismatch comes from different derivation conditions, not from two on-set states contradicting each other.

Two CSV-shape boundaries belong with this explanation

The header is concatenated from constants and is not passed through field escaping. Newlines and tabs inside data fields are flattened to spaces before quoting rules are considered, rather than preserving those line breaks inside quoted fields. The output should therefore not be described as “RFC4180 compliant.” This describes the generator's shape and does not predict how any particular downstream spreadsheet or editing system will interpret the file.

The column names are also fixed English constants and do not follow the app's language. The receiving principle from Where Each ALE Column Comes From and What to Check Before Using an ALE for Matching applies here as well: a receiver should verify the literal column names, value shapes, and sources against the receiving template.

FAQ

Does Rating change with the interface language?

No. The CSV rating text is a fixed set of English constants, while an unmarked take writes an empty Rating string.

Does an empty Circle cell mean the take was not circled?

Circle has no empty branch. Rating 4 writes TRUE, and every other case writes FALSE.

Why does Keep produce Circle=FALSE?

Circle checks only whether the rating equals 4. Keep uses a different rating value, so the CSV writes FALSE even though that internal circled flag is set on the write path.

Can Circle be read as the on-set circled state?

No. It is derived only from whether the take is in rating tier 4; the receiver should interpret it together with Rating and the receiving template rather than as a direct on-set flag.

Axiom One LLC — SlateX. Figures current as of 24 September 2026.