I used a program to generate comma-separated output to a csv file. I
wanted the data separated by commas to be in different columns.
However, when I opened the csv file, they were all in a single cell
with the commas in there.

So I tried to format the columns by using "Data"->"Text to columns".
Then selected "Delimited" and picked "Comma" as delimiter. However,
that didn't seem to work - They were still all in a single cell. BTW,
this happened on Friday

Then a miracle happened - Just now when I checked the csv file, the
data with commas in the middle were all properly separated into
different columns. I don't know why I couldn't get the data separated
into columns on Friday, while they're separated properly now.

Could anyone explain why?

the only way this can hapen if there are double quotes around the cells. Are
You sure you didn't accidently add double qutoes around each line when you
wrote the data?

Open the file in Notebook at look at the text data.

"Curious" wrote:

> I used a program to generate comma-separated output to a csv file. I
> wanted the data separated by commas to be in different columns.
> However, when I opened the csv file, they were all in a single cell
> with the commas in there.
>
> So I tried to format the columns by using "Data"->"Text to columns".
> Then selected "Delimited" and picked "Comma" as delimiter. However,
> that didn't seem to work - They were still all in a single cell. BTW,
> this happened on Friday
>
> Then a miracle happened - Just now when I checked the csv file, the
> data with commas in the middle were all properly separated into
> different columns. I don't know why I couldn't get the data separated
> into columns on Friday, while they're separated properly now.
>
> Could anyone explain why?
>
>