formatting in Excel

[mns9939]

Hi,
I have a perl-cgi script running from web, which has an output option to Excel. I use the following line to display the output in Excel.
"print header(-type=>'application/vnd.ms-excel');"

How ever, the problem is when i have a value like '10-04',
the output in Excel shows as 'April-10'. It recognizes as a date field though it is a character value.

My question is, how do i make Excel to accept all values as text values and not do any formatting for those values?

Thanks,
Madhu

 

[DaleWatson123321]

This should work:

BEFORE merging the data, click on the column letter (to select the entire column). Then use "Format Cells", and choose "Text".

Regards, ...Dale Watson dwatson@bsi.gov.mb.ca

 

[Dreamboat]

Madhu, if you're exporting to a new file each time, you may want to use a delimiter in front of each field: An apostrophe '

http://www.TheWordExpert.com

 

[mns9939]

Dreamboat,
Thanks for your reply. If i use an apostrophe ', it solves the formatting problem. However, all the columns will have a ' in front. Is there a way to hide the apostophe from displaying?

Thanks,
Madhu

 

[Imagineer]

mns,
IIRC, ' specifies left justified text. " specifies right justified text and ^ specifies centered text.

Imagineer