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Wesley Bakker
motion10
Rivium Quadrant 151
2909 LC Capelle aan den IJssel
Region of Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 10 2351035

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CSV stands for COMMA separated values!

CSV and MS Excel

Did you know that if your write a correct CSV(comma separated values) file while having MS Office Excel installed that file get's an Icon displaying an 'A' followed by a comma. If you double-click the file however, MS Office Excel doesn't recognize that the values in that file are separated by a comma. You need to Choose 'Data -> From Text' from the menu and run an import wizard to really extract the data.

Invalidate the file

If you make the file 'invalid' however by replacing the comma's by semicolons MS Office Excel will recognize your separator and the file get's displayed as data.

Save as

If you choose 'Save As -> Other Formats' from the menu, you can choose 'CSV (Comma delimited)(*.csv) as type. If you open the file with Notepad however,you'll find the semicolon as delimeter.

Cheers,

Wes

Posted: Aug 20 2008, 04:29 PM by webbes | with 7 comment(s)
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Comments

DotNetKicks.com said:

You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

# August 20, 2008 11:05 AM

pbz said:

I've encountered this myself; very odd...

# August 20, 2008 11:52 AM

Jason said:

It's the opposite on my computer in Excel 2003 and 2007.  I save a valid CSV file, double click, it parses the data as it should.  If I change the separators to semicolons, it does not parse the data when I reopen it in Excel.

# August 20, 2008 1:06 PM

MikeY said:

Not sure what is causing this.  I've __never__ had this happen, and even on my machine (XP SP-3 with Office 2003 installed), if I make a CSV file on the desktop, edit in notepad, place some numbers separated by comma, and doubleclick - Excel opens it just fine, with no questions.

Ideas ????

# August 20, 2008 1:23 PM

Josh said:

Excel opens CSV files with commas just fine for me by double clicking the icon.

# August 20, 2008 3:23 PM

huenemeca said:

What version of Excel are you using?  I have been using CSV files in Excel for years and never had to do this.  I just tried it now and it worked fine.  Maybe there is something weird with the data.

# August 20, 2008 3:54 PM

webbes said:

I found out that I was 'part' wrongfully blaming Excel. Im using Windows Vista with the Regional Settings to Dutch. If I hit Customize this format... I can see the List separator being a semicolon. Nevertheless, if I ask Excel to save a sheet as a Comma Separated Values file.. it should save as a comma separated values file to my opinion. They could then add the option "Save to Delimited Values File".

# August 21, 2008 3:31 AM
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