How to Write Data to File Faster in LabVIEW

Updated Feb 12, 2026

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW

Issue Details

I am currently writing data to a CSV file within LabVIEW but I am currently having performance issues and I am missing data when I attempt to acquire and log data at higher rates. What file format would be a better option when logging data at higher rates? 

Solution

When acquiring data at higher rates and logging them to file, NI recommends using a TDMS file format (per The NI TDMS File Format) to increase your application's performance. This is due to writing data to an ASCII file being significantly slower compared to other formats. In many cases, the write speed of an ASCII file cannot keep up with the speeds of acquisition systems, which can lead to data loss. Meanwhile, TDMS is a binary-based file format, so it can stream data to disk at high speeds and also has a small disk footprint.