3 ms·

If you are generating the CSV yourself, save yourself some agony and just wrap the text in ="" $ cat test.csv ="12.34567890124312341234123412341234",="

by niggler 14y ago

If you are generating the CSV yourself, save yourself some agony and just wrap the text in ="" $ cat test.csv ="12.34567890124312341234123412341234",="1-5" $ open -a Microsoft\ Excel test.csv

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
Where did that = sign come from? That isn't in the standard... Quotes are, but wtf? An equals sign? Fucking Excel. JUST TREAT THE NUMBERS LIKE TEXT YOU STUPID PROGRAM. 000001 === 000001 != 1
- niggler 14y ago
  It uses another auto trick: if the leading character is '=', the result is treated as a formula. Thus, you can actually write formulas in your CSV and excel will interpret appropriately: $ cat test.csv =1+1,="1-5" $ open -a Microsoft\ Excel test.csv You should see the value '2' (with content `=1+1`)
  - vacri 14y ago
    If you start using metacharacters, it's no longer a universal .csv, but an excel-specific one.
eli 14y ago
Sure, it's a nice trick, but now it's not really a CSV file any more. If I have to create a file that can only be read by Excel it might as well be XLSX.
- vidarh 14y ago
  There's a slight difference between having to strip "=" from the column values for other applications to handle it, and require those other applications to be able to handle XLSX..
  - eli 14y ago
    At least XLSX is an open and documented format. Are the rules for Excel CSV parsing written down anywhere?
    - niggler 14y ago
      "At least XLSX is an open and documented format." The documentation diverges from the excel implementation in so many places that there's a special document (which itself is incomplete): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd922181(v=office.12).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd922181(v=office.12... "Are the rules for Excel CSV parsing written down anywhere?" They are loosely described in ECMA-376 section 18.8.30 under the "General" format code. But like with most details surrounding XLS and XLSX, the documentation is barely coherent and incorrect in some places.

by niggler 14y ago

If you are generating the CSV yourself, save yourself some agony and just wrap the text in ="" $ cat test.csv ="12.34567890124312341234123412341234",="1-5" $ open -a Microsoft\ Excel test.csv

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago

Where did that = sign come from? That isn't in the standard... Quotes are, but wtf? An equals sign? Fucking Excel. JUST TREAT THE NUMBERS LIKE TEXT YOU STUPID PROGRAM. 000001 === 000001 != 1

niggler 14y ago
It uses another auto trick: if the leading character is '=', the result is treated as a formula. Thus, you can actually write formulas in your CSV and excel will interpret appropriately: $ cat test.csv =1+1,="1-5" $ open -a Microsoft\ Excel test.csv You should see the value '2' (with content `=1+1`)
- vacri 14y ago
  If you start using metacharacters, it's no longer a universal .csv, but an excel-specific one.

eli 14y ago

Sure, it's a nice trick, but now it's not really a CSV file any more. If I have to create a file that can only be read by Excel it might as well be XLSX.

vidarh 14y ago
There's a slight difference between having to strip "=" from the column values for other applications to handle it, and require those other applications to be able to handle XLSX..
- eli 14y ago
  At least XLSX is an open and documented format. Are the rules for Excel CSV parsing written down anywhere?
  - niggler 14y ago
    "At least XLSX is an open and documented format." The documentation diverges from the excel implementation in so many places that there's a special document (which itself is incomplete): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd922181(v=office.12).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd922181(v=office.12... "Are the rules for Excel CSV parsing written down anywhere?" They are loosely described in ECMA-376 section 18.8.30 under the "General" format code. But like with most details surrounding XLS and XLSX, the documentation is barely coherent and incorrect in some places.