Excel 2003 adds extra quotes to CSV upon resaving

[Rich]

I have a CSV that when viewed in notepad has the following 2 lines

"R1","J","3","","N","4",":4","0"
"R1","L","2","","N","4",":4","0"

but no matter if i open in by double-clicking or importing the data into a
blank worksheet, then resaving, when i open the CSV in notepad, it comes out
looking like this, with extra quotes, rather than just the quoting following
along with the original 2 lines.

"""R1"",""J"",""3"","""",""N"",""4"","":4"",""0"""
"""R1"",""L"",""2"","""",""N"",""4"","":4"",""0"""

I can't figure this out for the life of me. Can someone help? this would
be GREATLY appreciated!!

 

[Dave Peterson]

If I have all this:
"R1","J","3","","N","4",":4","0"
in a single cell, and then save as a .csv file, I get exactly what you describe.

So I'm guessing that your CSV file isn't being parsed into separate columns.

I'd check to make sure that my windows list separator (under the control panel's
regional settings applet) is really using a comma (a semicolon is common outside
the USA).

Or I'd import the file (all the data going into column A) and parse it myself
(data|Text to columns in xl2003 menus).

 

[Rich]

When I open my original CSV that has those two lines, it does open up with
everything in columns, not in one column. it's opening it as the csv
suggests, a new column based on the commas. but my problem is when i go to
resave it, it puts it all in the one column AND has extra quotes. do you
know how to get around that? i only have this problem in excel 2003, 2007
works fine.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have a guess.

When I open a comma delimited with quotes around the field, each field goes into
separate columns (like you get), but the quotes around the fields are removed,
too.

I use xl2003, too.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

It's not clear what you want to do with this file? Why open it as a CSV
file and then save it back as a CSV file from inside Excel?

If you want to parse the data in Excel select the data and choose Data, Text
to Columns and proceed. When the data is in multiple columns save it back
as a CSV file.

If this helps, please click the Yes button,

cheers,
Shane Devenshire