Quotes - Tab Delimited File

[TheBeeKeeper]

Hello,
I am having a weird problem. Any time I take a Microsoft Excel document and I save it as a text delimited file, quotes are put around any data fields where a comma exists.

For example, a field in excel would look like Detroit, Michigan

In this example, when saving it to a text delimited file, the field would look like this "Detroit, Michigan".

Can someone offer any idea why this may be occurring?

The same thing happens when exporting a file from Microsoft Access to a tab delimited file.

Thanks,
The Beekeeper

 

[Lilliabeth]

Hi,

That's not weird. It is normal in a tab delimited file for quotation marks to be put around any fields that have commas in them.

Lilliabeth
-Why use a big word when a diminutive one will do?-

 

[TheBeeKeeper]

Thanks for the reply Lilliabeth. Is there a way to get around this. Is there a feature in MS Excel to save in a tab delimited format without the quotes being inserted. The issue is that I am using the data for uploads and when quotes are entered, I can not tell what should be quotes and what was inserted by Excel.

Thanks for the help.
The Beekeeper

 

[NiceButDim]

I don't think there is any way to do this within Excel.
One option might be to copy the entire spreadsheet (Ctrl-A then Ctrl-C), then paste it into notepad. When you then save the file in notepad it will have tabs between the cells.

john.

 

[pbrodsky]

I tried it - Excel will replace quotes (") with double quotes ("") when saving tab-delimited text files. This (I think) matches the way Excel (and most other applications) reads delimited files (with the default setting of using " as a text delimeter.