Displaying CSV file in columns?

[Terry Pinnell]

I'm a bit rusty, so have forgotten some basics...

Some programs I use allow output of their tabular information in CSV
format for future reference, with semi-colons as separators. How can I
quickly re-display that in the same tabular form please, in Excel
2000?

Ideally I'd *prefer* to view it in my text editor (TextPad), because
that is always open, and fast to use. And that way I can apply a
global replace of ';' by '\t' to insert tabs. That allows easier
viewing, although not consistently lined up, of course. But Excel
doesn't appear to allow such flexibility. Or, more likely, I've
forgotten where it is!

 

[David Biddulph]

I'm a bit rusty, so have forgotten some basics...

Some programs I use allow output of their tabular information in CSV
format for future reference, with semi-colons as separators. How can I
quickly re-display that in the same tabular form please, in Excel
2000?

Ideally I'd *prefer* to view it in my text editor (TextPad), because
that is always open, and fast to use. And that way I can apply a
global replace of ';' by '\t' to insert tabs. That allows easier
viewing, although not consistently lined up, of course. But Excel
doesn't appear to allow such flexibility. Or, more likely, I've
forgotten where it is!

If Excel won't read your CSV into tables directly (which you can probably
make it do if you set semi-colon, rather than comma, as the list separator
in the Regional Options in Windows [not Excel]), then other options include:
1 reading the data into Excel and then use Data/ Text to Columns
(choosing the semi-colon under the "delimited" option), or
2 renaming the file from .csv to .txt, and then when you use Excel to
open the file it will offer you the option of delimted, and allow you to
choose the delimiter.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I'm a bit rusty, so have forgotten some basics...

Some programs I use allow output of their tabular information in CSV
format for future reference, with semi-colons as separators. How can I
quickly re-display that in the same tabular form please, in Excel
2000?

Ideally I'd *prefer* to view it in my text editor (TextPad), because
that is always open, and fast to use. And that way I can apply a
global replace of ';' by '\t' to insert tabs. That allows easier
viewing, although not consistently lined up, of course. But Excel
doesn't appear to allow such flexibility. Or, more likely, I've
forgotten where it is!

If Excel won't read your CSV into tables directly (which you can probably
make it do if you set semi-colon, rather than comma, as the list separator
in the Regional Options in Windows [not Excel]), then other options include:
1 reading the data into Excel and then use Data/ Text to Columns
(choosing the semi-colon under the "delimited" option), or
2 renaming the file from .csv to .txt, and then when you use Excel to
open the file it will offer you the option of delimted, and allow you to
choose the delimiter.

Many thanks. #2 is the one I now recall I used to use.