Importing Data problem

[Guest]

I'm using Data Import to import a comma delimited file into Excel. In only
one record it's cutting off the text after a certain point and putting the
remainder in the next column. Other fields that contain more text than this
one are not being split. I checked for hidden characters that might be
causing something like this, but nothing. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[DaveO]

I've seen this happen in a text field when the field contains a
punctuation comma that the import perceives as a delimiter. If you
look at the raw file, does that string contain a comma?

 

[Guest]

There does happen to be a ", space" immediately before where the data splits
but there are hundreds of those all throughout the data and it doesn't happen
in those places.

 

[David Biddulph]

It will tend not to split at a comma if this falls within a text field
enclosed in quotes, but will split otherwise. It gets more complicated if
the field also contains quotes, so if you save as a cvs Excel will double up
the quote marks in this situation.

 

[Guest]

Here's what was happening; all fields were already surrounded by double
quotes and separated by commas from the original export. Within that
particular field there was quoted text. I'm assuming that the end quotes of
that text interfered with the proper import. Removing the quotes around the
text allowed for successful import. Will figure out a way to determine actual
quoted text within the fields, substiute prior to data import then replace.

Thanks so much for the information that ultimately led to a resolution!