CSV collum formatting problem - Excel 2002

[Hammertime]

Hi guys,

A user has sent me a .csv file contating phone/fax numbers. Here are some examples:

31612345678
447768000000

Trouble is, anything starting with a 4 is displayed like this: (example)

4.42072E+11

Obviously I have tried formatting the collums to 0 decimal place however when you try and save changes a warning message appears saying that the file may contain features that are no compatible with CSV. Do you want to keep the workbook in this format? I have tried all options, however, it always reverts back to displaying the numbers as shown in the example (4.42072E+11).

The user needs it be a CSV file, it can't be saved as anything else. I have tried formatting the cells using percentages and currency and they work. It just won't work using numbers!

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Hammertime

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[KenWright]

Change the extension of the file to .txt instead of .csv and then open in Excel. the text import wizard willkick in and you will be able to specify text for individual columns within the wizard.

Regards
Ken..............

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[jdemmi]

I just tested this. And by DEFAULT I get the same result.

However, I then changed the column format (RIGHT CLICK, FORMAT CELLS) to NUMBER with 0 (zero) decimal places and NO thousands separator.

I was able to save the file as a CSV file and received the same "warning" but the file saved correctly.

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[KenWright]

By default you will get the same result which is why I was very specific about using one of the format options within the wizard to ensure you what got what you wanted. Given that your examples left it unclear as to whether or not there were any leading 0s that needed preserving, Text was the obvious format to choose.

Either way as long as you got what you needed then that's what counts.

Regards
Ken.................

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[jdemmi]

Ken -- My POST was in response to the original question.

I think you and I probably replied at about the same time.

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[KenWright]

LOL - Oops - Apologies

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