CODEWITHSUNDEEP
excelms-office
Soerendip
Soerendip

Reputation: 9148

How to import CSV-file with Microsoft Excel 2016?

I try to import a CSV-file in Excel. The program has funny default properties. It puts the content of the rows all in one column including the commas. Lets say the file content is (test.csv):

1, 2, 3
4, 5, 6

What I expect Excel to do is to put each number into a separate field using the comma as separators. However, the excel table has only two fields each containing 3 numbers including the commas, something like this (not what I want):

"1, 2, 3"
"4, 5, 6"

What do I have to change in Excel settings so that it does this standard task correctly?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3087

Answers (3)

wh81752
wh81752

Reputation: 916

Importing CSV via Data | From Text is -- altough working -- rather cumbersome: You need to select the file, the wizard asks about "Delimited" or "Fixed width", then you need to select "Comma" as seperator and finally how to import the data. And when you want to reimport later on the whole procedure starts again and again and again ..

Instead use Data | New Query | From File | From CSV and select the file to import from. I still had to adjust the encoding to UTF-8 while other settings are correctly detected (delimited by comma).

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The really great advantage is that you have to do this only once as the above procedure creates a so called "workbook query". To update or reimport just click "Refresh" in the workbook query's context menu.

**enter image description here**

Upvotes: 3

sebashc3712
sebashc3712

Reputation: 65

Depending of the configuration of Excel, the CSV files can be separated with "," or ";". To open a CSV file it's better to go to file-->open file-->text. There Excel asks you for the way you want to separate your fields in CSV.

Regards

Upvotes: 0

Hakan ERDOGAN
Hakan ERDOGAN

Reputation: 1210

You are probably not importing the CSV but instead opening it either double clicking or using the open dialog.

One of the correct ways of importing a CSV into Excel is using Data | From Text/CSV menu. This way you will be able to select the delimiters, change data types if you need etc.

Upvotes: 2

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