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#1
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format.
The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#2
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a
..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#3
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
Thanks for the quick response. After looking into this, I see that the date
fields are not changing formats, but they are dropping their leading 0's. Can I prevent that from happening? "Bob I" wrote: CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a ..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#4
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
Where are they dropping their leading 0's? If they exist in the .CSV
file, then they aren't dropped, if they don't exist in csv file, look at the application that created it. Harley wrote: Thanks for the quick response. After looking into this, I see that the date fields are not changing formats, but they are dropping their leading 0's. Can I prevent that from happening? "Bob I" wrote: CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a ..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#5
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
One method.
In a helper column enter =TEXT(Cellref,"mm/dd/yyyy") Copy down. Copy the helper column, select the original dates column and Paste SpecialValuesOKEsc Delete the helper column. Save As *.csv Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:47:01 -0800, Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#6
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
Hi Gord,
He's not creating it in Excel. "I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format." Gord Dibben wrote: One method. In a helper column enter =TEXT(Cellref,"mm/dd/yyyy") Copy down. Copy the helper column, select the original dates column and Paste SpecialValuesOKEsc Delete the helper column. Save As *.csv Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:47:01 -0800, Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#7
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
The leading 0's exist in the date fields when I export the data out of the
accounting application and into a .csv file. They are there in the csv file. I save the file as a csv, and close it. When I reopen the file, the leading 0's are gone. For example, "03/05/2008" becomes "3/5/2008". I exported the data into a txt file, and the leading 0's are present. I even manually typed data (a date) into a csv file, saved it, closed it, and when I reopened it, the leading 0's were gone. Help. "Bob I" wrote: Where are they dropping their leading 0's? If they exist in the .CSV file, then they aren't dropped, if they don't exist in csv file, look at the application that created it. Harley wrote: Thanks for the quick response. After looking into this, I see that the date fields are not changing formats, but they are dropping their leading 0's. Can I prevent that from happening? "Bob I" wrote: CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a ..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#8
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
Thanks. Tried this and the date format worked. Unfortuanately, I closed the
the file and reopened it. The leading 0's were gone. mm/dd/yyy reverted to m/d/yyyy Any ideas? "Gord Dibben" wrote: One method. In a helper column enter =TEXT(Cellref,"mm/dd/yyyy") Copy down. Copy the helper column, select the original dates column and Paste SpecialValuesOKEsc Delete the helper column. Save As *.csv Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:47:01 -0800, Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#9
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
Configure/format to show the Date in the format desired.
Harley wrote: The leading 0's exist in the date fields when I export the data out of the accounting application and into a .csv file. They are there in the csv file. I save the file as a csv, and close it. When I reopen the file, the leading 0's are gone. For example, "03/05/2008" becomes "3/5/2008". I exported the data into a txt file, and the leading 0's are present. I even manually typed data (a date) into a csv file, saved it, closed it, and when I reopened it, the leading 0's were gone. Help. "Bob I" wrote: Where are they dropping their leading 0's? If they exist in the .CSV file, then they aren't dropped, if they don't exist in csv file, look at the application that created it. Harley wrote: Thanks for the quick response. After looking into this, I see that the date fields are not changing formats, but they are dropping their leading 0's. Can I prevent that from happening? "Bob I" wrote: CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a ..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#10
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
In what application did you open the *.csv file?
Gord On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:09:00 -0800, Harley wrote: The leading 0's exist in the date fields when I export the data out of the accounting application and into a .csv file. They are there in the csv file. I save the file as a csv, and close it. When I reopen the file, the leading 0's are gone. For example, "03/05/2008" becomes "3/5/2008". I exported the data into a txt file, and the leading 0's are present. I even manually typed data (a date) into a csv file, saved it, closed it, and when I reopened it, the leading 0's were gone. Help. "Bob I" wrote: Where are they dropping their leading 0's? If they exist in the .CSV file, then they aren't dropped, if they don't exist in csv file, look at the application that created it. Harley wrote: Thanks for the quick response. After looking into this, I see that the date fields are not changing formats, but they are dropping their leading 0's. Can I prevent that from happening? "Bob I" wrote: CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a ..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
#11
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Losing date format when saving .csv files
Please understand. A CSV is a TEXT file. No formatting. You can open and
close the CSV as a text file (using Notepad or any other text editor) as often as you like, and it won't lose the leading zeroes. Again I'll say it; a CSV file doesn't include formatting. The problem arises if you use Excel to open the CSV, and if you let Excel use its default settings. If you want to open the file with Excel, and if you want Excel to keep the data unaltered, import the data as text. Either rename the file as TXT instead of CSV, or use Excel's Data/ Import External Data, and specify each column as text. [Another option might be to change the Windows Regional Options to set the default date format to suit your requirements.] -- David Biddulph Harley wrote: The leading 0's exist in the date fields when I export the data out of the accounting application and into a .csv file. They are there in the csv file. I save the file as a csv, and close it. When I reopen the file, the leading 0's are gone. For example, "03/05/2008" becomes "3/5/2008". I exported the data into a txt file, and the leading 0's are present. I even manually typed data (a date) into a csv file, saved it, closed it, and when I reopened it, the leading 0's were gone. Help. "Bob I" wrote: Where are they dropping their leading 0's? If they exist in the .CSV file, then they aren't dropped, if they don't exist in csv file, look at the application that created it. Harley wrote: Thanks for the quick response. After looking into this, I see that the date fields are not changing formats, but they are dropping their leading 0's. Can I prevent that from happening? "Bob I" wrote: CSV files have no formatting. They are simply plain text files with a ..CSV extension, and provide no additional information about the data/text. If you open the file with Notepad you will see that it isn't the file loosing/changing the formatting, but the application. Harley wrote: I am exporting accounting data out of legacy database into .csv file format. The text data is not delimited, so I use Text to Columns and set the date fields to Text (from General). The date formats retain formatting (in my case, mm/dd/yyyy). I save the file as a .csv. When I reopen the file, I lose the date formatting. The date fields revert to m/d/yyyy. I have to use .csv file in order to upload to a 3rd party. What can I do to retain the mm/dd/yyyy format when saving as a .csv file? |
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