how do I get the comma delimited feature to work in excel

[Guest]

I have a .csv file that is supposed to be separated at the comma's into
columns. How do I get the comma delimited feature to work?

 

[Guest]

1 open excel first
2 file>open
3 browse to your file
4 open it
5 select delimited
6 select comma delimited and finish

 

[Dave Peterson]

Make sure your windows list separator matches the field separator in your CSV
file (a comma in both spots).

Close excel
windows start button|settings|control panel|Regional and language options

Click the customize button
Numbers Tab
List separator

Make sure it's a comma.

 

[Guest]

where do I select delimited from I cannot find it anywhere?

 

[Guest]

I just checked it and it is a comma
if you can think of anything else it would be great

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have any other guess.

Maybe you can explain what you're doing in more detail. I just guessed that you
were doubleclicking on the filename in windows explorer.

 

[Guest]

i have a report I pull from an insurance company that says to download in csv.
when I am on one of my computers it downloads and separates into columns
correctl. when I go to my newer PC's it downloads but is just line after
line of info
that should be separated inot columns not just by comma's.
If I save the download from the first PC (that does it correctly) The newer
pc's read it fine and in the correct columns. This is real distressing
because it won't open on any of my 100 newer pc's correctly.

 

[Dave Peterson]

On the troublesome pcs...

Did you check the list separator there (each pc could be different)?

Do you save the .csv file to the harddrive first, then double click on it to
open it in excel--or is it something you just click on (on a web page) and excel
opens it automatically?

If you don't save it locally first, what happens if you do save it locally.

i have a report I pull from an insurance company that says to download in csv.
when I am on one of my computers it downloads and separates into columns
correctl. when I go to my newer PC's it downloads but is just line after
line of info
that should be separated inot columns not just by comma's.
If I save the download from the first PC (that does it correctly) The newer
pc's read it fine and in the correct columns. This is real distressing
because it won't open on any of my 100 newer pc's correctly.

 

[Guest]

what do you mean by list separator?
It just automatically opens in excel

 

[David Biddulph]

where do I select delimited from I cannot find it anywhere?

I don't think you'll see a choice of delimiter at the File Open stage if the
file type is set to .csv. If you rename the file to .txt then it should
give you the choice of delimiter. You could try it that way & see whether
with comma set as delimiter it will import correctly from .txt, but that
won't necessarily explain why it isn't working for you at present from .csv.
Are you absolutely sure that you've got comma set up as the delimiter in the
Windows Regional Settings, and that the csv file (if you look at it with
something like notepad) has commas as delimiters?

 

[Dave Peterson]

Windows can be customized for different regions in the planet. The List
separator is one of those things that can be changed.

In Europe, the list separator is usually the semicolon (. In the USA, it's
usually the comma (,).

But if the user's regional settings don't match what the data contains, you can
see the problem that you described. (In fact, I've never seen another cause for
the problem you describe.)

what do you mean by list separator?
It just automatically opens in excel

 

[Guest]

okay. I checked that earlier but it was already set to comma. this is
getting very frustrating. I am sure it is something easy ....but
what???????????

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have any other guesses.

okay. I checked that earlier but it was already set to comma. this is
getting very frustrating. I am sure it is something easy ....but
what???????????

 

[David Biddulph]

You say that you've checked that the list separator in the regional settings
on the machine in question is set to comma. Have you also used Notepad or
some other text editor to see what the separator in your csv file is?

 

[Guest]

I can open it in notepad but I do not understand how to tell if what the
separator value is. It opens up but still just list eveything together.

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you open the file in Notepad and you see things like:

1234,"this is some text",342.32,"more text"

Then each field is separated by commas.

You may want to post a few lines from the text file.