Comma Delimited (CSV) Files

[Jerel]

How can I save an excel file as a comma delimited (CSV)
file, BUT still maintain a format that allows for 15-digit
credit card numbers? These usually require special cell
formatting (ie text or number) that get lost when saved as
a CSV file.

My understanding is that saving as CSV saves all formats
as "General." The result is a file that displays credit
card numbers in scientific notation (3.71528E+14)!! This
doesn't work for batch uploading to process credit cards.

What can I do to have a CSV Excel file that actually
displays 15 digits!?

Jerel

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you just reformat the cell (whole column) as Number with 0 decimal points,
won't it be ok?

But I thought that you'd have to reserve 16 digits for a lot of credit cards.

And this is where you're going to have trouble. Excel will only keep track of
15 significant digits. (you'll end up with a 0 in the one's position for those
16 digit numbers.)

If you treat your numbers a text (leading apostrophe or preformatting the cell
as text), then you can save as .csv and see the 16 digits. But if you import to
excel, excel will see the digits as numbers and only keep 15 of the 16 (turn
that one's digit to 0).

If you rename your .csv file to .txt, you can File|open it, then specify that
that field is text and it'll be ok.