---
title: Time Series Labeling 
type: templates
category: Time Series Analysis
cat: time-series-analysis
order: 601
meta_title: Time Series Data Labeling Template
meta_description: Template for labeling multivariate and simple time series data with Label Studio for your machine learning and data science projects.
---

<img src="/images/templates/time-series-forecasting.png" alt="" class="gif-border" width="552px" height="408px" />

Label any type of time series data using this generic template.

## Interactive Template Preview

<div id="main-preview"></div>

<!--Need to fix this preview because it previews all the configs on this page oh no-->
  
## Labeling Configuration
  
Example project configuration for multivariate time series labeling:
  
```html
<View>
  <TimeSeriesLabels name="label" toName="ts">
    <Label value="Run"/>
    <Label value="Walk"/>
  </TimeSeriesLabels> 
  <TimeSeries name="ts" valueType="url" value="$csv_url" timeColumn="time">
    <Channel column="sensorone" />
    <Channel column="sensortwo" />
  </TimeSeries>
</View>
```

## About the labeling configuration

All labeling configurations must be wrapped in [View](/tags/view.html) tags.

Use the [TimeSeriesLabels](/tags/timeserieslabels.html) control tag to highlight and label specific spans of a time series graph:
```xml
<TimeSeriesLabels name="label" toName="ts">
    <Label value="Run"/>
    <Label value="Walk"/>
</TimeSeriesLabels> 
```
The tag is linked to the [TimeSeries](/tags/timeseries.html) object tag with a `toName` parameter.

Use the [TimeSeries](/tags/timeseries.html) object tag to display time series data and channels:
```xml
<TimeSeries name="ts" valueType="url" value="$csv_url" timeColumn="time">
    <Channel column="sensorone" />
    <Channel column="sensortwo" />
</TimeSeries>
```
The `valueType="url"` parameter means that Label Studio expects links to CSV files in JSON-formatted tasks. The `timeColumn` parameter specifies the column in your dataset to use as the X-axis for time. If you don't specify a `timeColumn`, Label Studio uses incremental integer values as the X-axis: `0, 1, 2, ...`.

### Input data
Example CSV file input for the labeling configuration looks as follows:

```csv
time,sensorone,sensortwo
0,10,20
1,20,30
2,30,40
```

## Related tags
- [TimeSeriesLabels](/tags/timeserieslabels.html)
- [TimeSeries](/tags/timeseries.html)
- [Channel](/tags/timeseries.html#Channel)

## Input formats

Label Studio supports several input types for time series:

- CSV with or without a header
- TSV with or without a header
- JSON

### CSV Example

For example, for a CSV file with 3 columns:

```csv
time,sensorone,sensortwo
0.0,3.86,0.00
0.1,2.05,2.11
0.2,1.64,5.85
 ```

Then, create a JSON file that references a URL for the CSV file to upload to Label Studio:
```json
[ { "data": { "csv_url": "http://example.com/path/to/file.csv" } } ]
```

Because the JSON file references a URL, and the URL is specified in a field called `csv_url`, set up the TimeSeries object tag like follows in your labeling configuration:
```html
<TimeSeries name="ts" valueType="url" value="$csv_url" sep="," timeColumn="time">
    <Channel column="sensorone" />
</TimeSeries>
```
In this case, the `<TimeSeries>` tag has the `valueType="url"` attribute because the CSV file is referenced as a URL. See [How to import your data](/guide/tasks.html#How-to-import-your-data).

### TSV Example

If you're uploading a tab-separated file, use the `sep` attribute on the `TimeSeries` tag to specify tab separation.

For example, set up the TimeSeries object tag like follows in your labeling configuration:
```html
<TimeSeries name="ts" valueType="url" value="$csv_url" sep="\t" timeColumn="time">
    <Channel column="0"/>
</TimeSeries>
```

### Headless CSV & TSV

The main difference for the headless CSV/TSV usage is another way to name `<Channel>` columns. Since the file has no header and nothing is known about the column names, use a column index instead. For example, to use the first column as a temporal column, specify `<TimeSeries timeColumn="0" ... >`. The same is true for the `column` attribute in `<Channel>` tag. 

### JSON

All tasks in Label Studio are stored in JSON and this is the native format for Label Studio. 

- `valueType="url"`

  When you use `valueType="url"` for TimeSeries tag and import a CSV file, Label Studio automatically creates a JSON task with the body like this example: 
  
  ```json
  {
    "csv": "http://localhost:8080/data/upload/my-import-file.csv"
  }
  ```

- `valueType="json"`
  
  You can also use Label Studio JSON format directly by creating and import JSON structured like the following example, where each key specifies the time and channels: 

  ```json
  {
    "ts": {
      "time": [
        15.97, 15.85, 25.94
      ],
      "sensorone": [
        13.86, 29.05, 64.90
      ],
      "sensortwo": [
        21.00, 15.18, 35.85
      ]
    }
  }
  ```

## Output format example

Annotators add labels to time series tasks. Label Studio represents each completed annotation with a JSON structure. Each annotation has a `result` field that looks like the following example for time series labeling projects:

```json
{
  "annotations": [{  
    "result": [
      {
          "value": {
              "start": 1592250751951.8074,
              "end": 1592251071946.638,
              "instant": false,
              "timeserieslabels": [
                  "Run"
              ]
          },
          "id": "S1DkU7FSku",
          "from_name": "label",
          "to_name": "ts",
          "type": "timeserieslabels"
      },
      {
          "value": {
              "start": 1592251231975.601,
              "end": 1592251461993.5276,
              "instant": false,
              "timeserieslabels": [
                  "Run"
              ]
          },
          "id": "XvagJo87mr",
          "from_name": "label",
          "to_name": "ts",
          "type": "timeserieslabels"
      }
    ]
  }] 
}
```

## Enhance this template

If you want to enhance this template, you can make a number of changes to the tag configurations. 

### Multiple time series in one project

If you want to use multiple time series datasets in one project, you must make your CSV files available as URLs and import a JSON-formatted file with tasks that reference those CSV files. 

For example, for a task that can reference two sets of time series data:

```json
[ { "data": { "csv_file1": "http://example.com/path/file1.csv", "csv_file2": "http://example.com/path/file2.csv" } } ]
```

You could then set up the following labeling configuration to reference each CSV file and be able to label them both on the same labeling interface:
```html
<View>
  <Header value="First time series" />
  <TimeSeriesLabels name="lbl-1" toName="ts-1">
    <Label value="Label 1" />
  </TimeSeriesLabels>
  <TimeSeries name="ts-1" timeColumn="0" value="$csv_file1">
    <Channel column="1" />
  </TimeSeries>
	
  <Header value="Second time series" />
  <TimeSeriesLabels name="lbl-2" toName="ts-2">
    <Label value="Label 2" />
  </TimeSeriesLabels>
  <TimeSeries name="ts-2" timeColumn="0" value="$csv_file2">
    <Channel column="1" />
  </TimeSeries>
</View>
```
The `value` parameter in the [TimeSeries](/tags/timeseries.html) tag is used to refer to the JSON key with the CSV file URL.