Excel changing information to date

[Greg Copeland]

I am receiving a .csv file which has parcel information in
it(municipal use). The parcel information includes a lot
ID which comes in two forms map-lot or map-lot-sublot. A
parcel identified as Map 99 Lot 23 would com in as 99-23,
Map 99, lot 27-4 would be 99-27-4. When opening the CSV
file in Excel this works fine as long as this id does not
look like a date such as Map 2 lot 15 or map 2 lot 15-2,
which would be 2-15 or 2-15-1 which Excel converts these
upon opening to 15-Feb and 2/15/2001. Is there a way to
force Excel to stop making these conversions? There are
two many records to go back and correct.

 

[Guest]

Hello,

You might try going to "Format", "Cells". Under the "Number" tab, you can select how you want the data in the highlighted cells to be displayed. It sounds like the "Date" format has been previously selected and you can change it.

Jill

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Greg Copeland]

Thank you, I've tried it. The default seems to
be "general" and once the file is opened the data is
converted to a date value. Simply changing the format to
text leaves the date value in the cell.

GC

-----Original Message-----
Hello,

You might try going to "Format", "Cells". Under

the "Number" tab, you can select how you want the data in
the highlighted cells to be displayed. It sounds like
the "Date" format has been previously selected and you can
change it.

 

[PegL]

You could change the file type association for .csv files
so that Excel isn't it, or rename the file to .txt. Then
from Excel you can do an import. That will let you
specify Text as the type for that column.