Leading Zero in .csv format

[rob]

I've read all the post and blogs on csv files dropping leading zero's
and still haven't found a solution. I have Excel 2002 and when I save
file as .csv it drops the leading zero. I've tried formatting cells as
text before saving as csv, importing data with cells set as text,
under custom format my version of evcel doesn't have an option for
00000 or #0000. I was told that I need to upgrade to a newer version
of excel. Any help would be greatly appriciated..

 

[Dave Peterson]

Don't open the .csv file in excel to check it.

Use NotePad--or some other text editor.

You'll find that the leading zeros are there.

Excel will remove them when you reopen the .csv file--not when excel saves it.

 

[rob]

Don't open the .csv file in excel to check it.

Use NotePad--or some other text editor.

You'll find that the leading zeros are there.

Excel will remove them when you reopen the .csv file--not when excel savesit.

Okay, If I open the csv the zero is gone. If I open the file in
notepad the zero is present. Does that mean if I upload the csv file
to my database that the number will be whole and the zero present?

Thanks Dave..

 

[Dave Peterson]

I would think it would depend on how your database importing works.

 

[Ed]

Dave,

I'm having the same problem. Is there any way to make Excel open the
..csv file containing a
string of numeric characters with a leading 0, e.g., "03" , and have
it saved in a cell as text instead of
numeric?

TIA

Ed

 

[Dave Peterson]

Rename the .csv file to .txt

When you do file|open, you'll be prompted in the text to columns wizard on how
each field should be treated. You can choose text for the fields that should
retain the leading 0's.

Alternatively, you could use:
Data|Import External data (xl2003 menu system) and follow that wizard.