zip codes not being saved as text in CSV format

[Guest]

I need my file to be saved in CSV format (to import into another
application). When I format the zip codes as Text or Special(zip code), they
are correct in XLS format, but when I open the file in CSV format they switch
back to general.

Any solution? work around? Thanks so much for your help in advance!!

Melissa

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Change the file extension to .txt and use the text import wizard to treat
the column as text (last dialog)

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your response.

I tried saving the file as .txt and then opened that file up again (treating
the column as text). That worked, but I still can't saved the file as a
..csv...it converts the column back to general.

Melissa

 

[Guest]

Do not re-open the CSV file in Excel - you'll always see the ZIP codes as
numbers. Check it instead in Notepad or some other text editor. You should
see the leading zeros there, meaning it will import correctly into your other
program

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Everything in a CSV is text. The conversion is occuring when you open it in
Excel.

As Duke said, open the CSV in notepad, wordpad or word and you should see
how it is being stored in the CSV. My post was to keep Excel from
converting it when it is opened in Excel. If this isn't the target
application to open the file, then your work is already done - now it is a
task of understanding.

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Melissa,

Anything in a text file is just that. There is no text, number, or any
other hidden designation. Opening the saved text file with NotePad is a
useful way to see what it put in the file. What you see is everything in
the file (except you can't see the line-feeds at the end of a line, but you
can see their effect). The sheet should have been written to the text file
exactly as it appears in the sheet. It's when you open a text file with
Excel that it's getting interpreted as a number, left zeroes are dropped,
and things like that.

If you're saving the sheet as a text file in order to open it later in
Excel, you probably shouldn't. Save it as an Excel workbook, and all the
attributes (number formatting) will be saved with it. If you're saving it
in order to have it read by another program, NotePad tells you exactly what
that program will see. No more, no less.