Editing CSV files prior to import - a warning

[norman]

As a general rule DO NOT use Excel to manipulate CSV files - Use Notepad.

This is why.

Before a file went into Excel it looked like this :-

"123456789012345","ABC123","32, The Street","Anywhere"

After it was saved by Excel as a CSV file it looked like this :-

1.23457E+14,ABC123,"32, The Street",Anywhere

Long numbers get altered into Scientific notation and it removes formatting. This can cause all sorts of problems.

A worse case scenario would be :-

1.23457E+14,ABC123,32, The Street,Anywhere

This now has five fields when the original had four.

Norman