Opening and formating a CSV file?

T

Terry Pinnell

Could someone remind me how to handle CSV files please? I had assumed
the Text Import Wizard would pop-up when I use File|Open, but the data
goes straight into the worksheet. (Presumably because it is not
'delimited'?) Without the Wizard at my side, how do I get each
comma-separated field in its own column?
 
D

Dave Peterson

Try renaming your .csv file to .txt



Terry said:
Could someone remind me how to handle CSV files please? I had assumed
the Text Import Wizard would pop-up when I use File|Open, but the data
goes straight into the worksheet. (Presumably because it is not
'delimited'?) Without the Wizard at my side, how do I get each
comma-separated field in its own column?
Click to expand...
 
T

Terry Pinnell

Terry Pinnell said:
Could someone remind me how to handle CSV files please? I had assumed
the Text Import Wizard would pop-up when I use File|Open, but the data
goes straight into the worksheet. (Presumably because it is not
'delimited'?) Without the Wizard at my side, how do I get each
comma-separated field in its own column?
Click to expand...

OK, sorted thanks. When I mulled it over, I realised something had to
be wrong with the file itself for that to happen. Sure enough, I found
there wasn't a single comma in the whole CSV file - they were all
semicolons!

Presumably just a gaff by the software author?

Having globally replaced the semicolons with commas, the file imports
in neat tabular fashion automatically.
 
R

RogerN

Terry.

I see you have sorted it but next time don't have or remove the CSV file
extension. Excel will then not "recognise" the data and open the wizard.
Otherwise, once the Excel fiile is open, highlight the data and use Data/Text
to columns, which will open the wizard.

Either way, if you use the delimited option, you can then chose the
delimiter in step 2. This will avoid the necessity of amending the original
file.

Hope this helps.

Roger
 
T

Terry Pinnell

RogerN said:
Terry.

I see you have sorted it but next time don't have or remove the CSV file
extension. Excel will then not "recognise" the data and open the wizard.
Otherwise, once the Excel fiile is open, highlight the data and use Data/Text
to columns, which will open the wizard.

Either way, if you use the delimited option, you can then chose the
delimiter in step 2. This will avoid the necessity of amending the original
file.

Hope this helps.

Roger
Click to expand...

Thanks, useful tip.
 
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