Importing CSV files

[nnappy]

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to import a csv file that has a field where users post
comments online. When I import it though, Excel reads through the
comments and creates separate columns whenever a user uses a comma in
their comment which from what I understand isn't supposed to happen
because the comments are enclosed like "....".

I thought that Excel only creates columns when the commas lie outside
two pairs of ", any suggestions??

 

[David Biddulph]

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to import a csv file that has a field where users post
comments online. When I import it though, Excel reads through the
comments and creates separate columns whenever a user uses a comma in
their comment which from what I understand isn't supposed to happen
because the comments are enclosed like "....".

I thought that Excel only creates columns when the commas lie outside
two pairs of ", any suggestions??

Importing the CSV should be OK that way. Are you sure that the double quote
marks in the file are the right characters? [Are you also sure that you
haven't got extra quote characters within the field? If you need a quote
mark within the field, you need a pair of them together, i.e. ""]

It might be worth trying to rename the .csv file as .txt, and then Excel
should allow you to open it through a wizard which lets you specify the
delimiter as a comma and the text qualifier as double quotes. If need be,
copy the quote marks from your txt file to be sure you've got the right ones
in your import.