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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

President Adams above has it - why on earth is it impossible for Excel to simply accept a CSV file as text and give me exactly what is between the commas/linebreaks[/quotes]?

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Just encountered the "stripping of leading zeroes" that Siddharth mentioned above. Case closed as far as I'm concerned :)

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

I agree. It's just easier to use a CSV editor - much less trouble than excel, and most of the editors are free (or with a trial period). I use Ron's Editor (...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Vis,Once you format a column or entire sheet as Text, excel preserves that setting and works well with the example you have mentioned here.Also while copy & pasting such content, if you want to...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Hmm...  Wish I had found this earlier.  :-(There is a specification for CSV.  It's called plain text.  Text is text.  MS should not be trying to treat it as anything other than text.  Even when you...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

This is when it gets really frutrating.I have a column with text like "c:\filesJan10"It is excel proper, so I could format the column to the type of my liking, like Text "Text format cells are treated...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

This is but the tip of the "Why Excel is horrible for data" iceberg. Seriously. It's horrible, aweful in at least 10 ways when put to use by users who are trying to manipulate tables of data rather...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Excel has a few issues that I've seen when getting the data into SSIS, some are technical some are users. It's great because it's flexible but this is also one of it's issues when processing dataIt's...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Excel does not display leading zeros in numbers. This can be a big misguiding factor at times.Also I am amazed to see such a heavy discussion on this kind of topic :) Jamie, may be you should convert...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Excel does not display leading zeros in numbers. This can be a big misguiding factor at times.Also I am amazed to see such a heavy discussion on this kind of topic :) Jamie, may be you should convert...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Excel does not display leading zeros in numbers. This can be a big misguiding factor at times.Also I am amazed to see such a heavy discussion on this kind of topic :) Jamie, may be you should convert...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Wes,  Microsoft spins a wheel of corruption and spits out whatever format it lands on. =)Point taken.Cliff

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Jamie, True, but if you have alot of records in your csv, a text editor could be a rough time ahead. What I tend to do, is make a copy of the file in excel as a .xls file (or .xslx in 2007). It's habit...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Blimey! I didn't expect this much activity on this post. Thanks one and all for your contributions!.Owen/Jeff,I quite agree, XML is a great method for passing around structured data.By way of adding to...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Jeff -My point being, if I was dealing with a raw file input with the schema:a, hellob, "HELLO"c, "goodbye" I'd be more concerned with why my input is mangled BEFORE I inputted it into Excel or any...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

I have run into this problem of Excel destructively manipulating CSV files. The truncation of leading zeros on numbers was probably the most frustrating event. I am having difficulty locating the...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Well, your all right and you are all wrong. There is NO specification on how a csv file, csv editor, or csv reader should work. If you do not like how Excel handles CSV Files then don't use it. In...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

Owen,Bad example you say?Simple test, wrap the text in both lines in text delimiters and see if the same thing happens. (I'll save you the 20-odd seconds that it'll take you - it does).So, not a red...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

A user typed CNA, which is a big insurance company, and it was automatically changed to Can - someone decided that they know better than the user what the user intends to type, and that someone was...

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re: Why you shouldn't open .csv files in Excel

wow, my typing is almost as bad as that examplemore coffee please.

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