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Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files [message #185623 is a reply to message #185620]

Tue, 22 April 2014 19:07

Jerry Stuckle
Messages: 2598
Registered: September 2010

Karma:

Senior Member

On 4/22/2014 2:43 PM, sonnichjensen(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am saving CSV files from a PHP app, but I face 2 problems:
> 1. stock numbers are sometimes just numbers, but I'd like to keep them as strings
> 2. prices are e.g. 5.2 which Excel translates as a date.
>
> Say:
>
> Item;Name;Price;Amount;Total
> 123;Test;5.2;1;5.2
> 124;Test2;1.2;2;2.4
> Total;;;;=sum(e2:e3)
>
> Just copy this into notepad and save with csv extension and you will see.
>
> I'd like to have 123 and 124 as strings, and eg 5.2 as a float.
> Can I format it better than this?
>
> WBR
> Sonnich
>

Unfortunately, while there are some guidelines on how .CSV files should
be written, there are few "hard and fast" rules. About the only ones
are that if a field contains the field and/or row separator character
(by default comma and newline, respectively), that field must be
enclosed in double quotes. Also, if a field contains double quotes,
("), the quotes must be doubled ("").

Because there are so few rules, the program that imports the file is
pretty much free to do what it wants with the file. You might try
enclosing the numbers you want as strings in quotes (i.e. "123"); I
don't know if this will work or not (I don't use Excel).

Other than that, you could try an Excel newsgroup or forum to see if
they have any suggestions on how to format your file so that Excel will
interpret it as you wish.

Wish I could be of more help.

--
==================
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Jerry Stuckle
jstucklex(at)attglobal(dot)net
==================

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[Message index]

		Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Sonnich Jensen on Tue, 22 April 2014 18:43
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Jerry Stuckle on Tue, 22 April 2014 19:07
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Michael Vilain on Tue, 22 April 2014 19:53
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Christoph Michael Bec on Tue, 22 April 2014 20:29
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Thomas 'PointedEars' on Tue, 22 April 2014 23:27
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Richard Yates on Tue, 22 April 2014 23:24
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Jim Higgins on Thu, 24 April 2014 19:21
		Re: Storing strings and numbers properly in CSV files By: Mr Oldies on Sat, 03 May 2014 00:48

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